


Mystery Spot

by JWade



Category: Supernatural
Genre: M/M, Tear Rating: 3/10
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-20
Updated: 2017-10-23
Packaged: 2019-01-20 06:57:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 19
Words: 31,284
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12427344
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JWade/pseuds/JWade
Summary: Michael realizes that Lucifer is planning a jailbreak by sending Sam visions, and decides to send the hunter his own help for dealing with Amara instead.





	1. Chapter 1

Michael sat in the cage, trying not to draw the attention of Lucifer as he felt an idea forming in his mind, and needed to work it out. He had felt the awakening of Amara and that was enough to jolt him back to sanity, not that he would let on to Lucifer, of course. It suited his purpose to let Lucifer continue thinking he was insane. He had felt the cage crack, and knew that Lucifer was using those cracks to mess with his vessel’s head. He knew that his brother was trying for a jailbreak and he couldn’t allow that. The last thing they needed with Amara out and about was Lucifer on the rampage as well. As bitter as he was about being stuck here himself, he’d had enough time to think to realize that they may have been right to do so. 

That whole mess had given him a new appreciation for the ingenuity of humans…Winchesters in particular, and decided that if anyone had a chance to get Amara locked back up again, it would be them. The biggest problem was time. They needed time to figure something out. Time that Amara wouldn’t be likely to give them. That was where the gem of this idea was born. It was crude and likely to cause no end of frustration to them, but there was only so much he could do with the cracks in the cage as small as they were. As it was, he didn’t think he would be able to loop time for more than one of them, and not for more than a day, but once it was set in motion, he could leave it in place as long as he needed. The question was, which one should he loop?

He spent some time considering what he knew about them before realizing that Lucifer’s vessel would be the better choice. He was more the thinker and planner of the two. His own vessel was more action oriented, like himself, which had been why he’d left the bulk of the details of the apocalypse in Raphael’s hands, which in hindsight, was a mistake. Lucifer’s vessel would be much more useful. That brought a whole new problem into play though. He would need to make sure he looped a day that Lucifer didn’t send him one of his visions. The last thing he needed was for that to stay at the front of the human’s mind. 

Unfortunately, the only way he could think of to stop Lucifer from sending him a vision was to keep him distracted, and he was too weak to put up enough of a fight, so the only option would be to piss his brother off and submit to his torture. It would be much easier if he could send his own visions to the younger vessel, but that wasn’t an option. Lucifer could only reach his mind because of their connection. He could possibly reach the brother’s mind, but given that he had never actually taken possession of his own vessel it would be much more difficult. That and it wasn’t really good for getting across full concepts. It would only work for flashes, and who knew if the hunter would draw the correct conclusion for any warnings, and even if he did, whether his brother would listen to him. 

He wondered if Lucifer would feel his power leaving the cage, but then realized that he most likely would. Michael could feel it when Lucifer did, after all. It could work to piss him off enough to distract him for a day though. At least it could be a starting point. He also knew that Lucifer was trying not to overwhelm his vessel by sending him visions every day, so he would wait until the day after the next vision, after making sure that he was in a situation where he would have time to do the necessary research. 

He felt Lucifer’s attention turn to him again and realized that he had been silent for too long as he was thinking so he quickly started singing, trying to keep Lucifer as in the dark as possible about his returned sanity. As long as he thought him insane, it wasn’t quite as fun to torture him. Not that he still didn’t do it. Just not quite as often or as brutally since he lost his mind. He could ignore the taunts all day long. They did hurt, but he was long used to them. The physical pain was a little more difficult to ignore. 

The next time Lucifer sent Sam a vision, Michael piggybacked his senses on it, and found that they were in the middle of a job. Not the best time. It was nearly a week before he found an opening. The brothers were in what seemed to be their home, between jobs, so Michael waited until the next day, and sent his own burst of power out of the cracks. As expected, the second he felt it leave, Lucifer turned on him. “What was that?” he hissed angrily. Michael just started to sing, curling up in a ball, knowing that his insanity wasn’t going to save him from this one. In fact, he was counting on it really, but that didn’t mean he was looking forward to it. “What did you do?” Lucifer asked again, aiming a kick at his brother’s head. 

By the time Lucifer got bored with him a few days later and let him off the rack, Michael was relieved. Both that Lucifer was done, and that he hadn’t managed to send any more visions out. He had set the time to loop for a year, hoping that would be enough, but he would do it again if he needed to. He would piggy-back on Lucifer’s next vision to see if it was necessary. Giving him too much time would be counter-productive though, hence the one-year limit. He would likely get extremely bored during that time once he had the solution. He did hope that he wouldn’t have to do this again though, and that Sam had found the answers he needed in that time.


	2. Chapter 2

Sam woke refreshed, glad that he hadn’t had another vision about the cage. He wasn’t quite sure what they meant just yet, but he was afraid that they were trying to tell him that he had to go back. That Lucifer was the only one that could help them. He refused to consider that until all other hope was gone though. He stretched and headed out to the kitchen to find Dean standing in his robe at the stove, frying up some bacon, while Back in Black was blaring from the radio. He immediately looked to the clock. Had he really slept that late? No. It wasn’t even eight AM. “Dude, what are you doing up so early?” he asked as he turned down the music and sat down at the table. He had long learned not to try to help when Dean was cooking lest he wanted his head bit off. On the plus side, the meals were generally worth the wait. 

“Man, I had this amazing dream about this curvy blonde chick and she was…”

“Oh, god! I don’t need to know!” Sam cut him off. That did explain his good mood though. Dean only cooked breakfast when he was in a really good mood. 

After breakfast, Dean plopped on the couch to watch Saturday morning cartoons, and Sam rolled his eyes and made his way to the library to try and do some research on their Amara situation. Not that he had any idea where to begin. He was pulled from his books by Dean’s call of, “Lunch!” and headed to the kitchen to eat. “So, I’m thinking since we have some down time we can hit a bar or something later,” Dean mumbled around his mouthful of burger. “I noticed when I was grabbing the food, that one bar on Raeford St is having ladies night tonight.”

“Sure, Dean. Why not.” Sam figured he would need a break by then anyway and it was nice to get out from time to time. Sam went back to the books after they ate, until Dean dragged him away around four PM to head out to the bar. 

The two of them hustled a little pool for the first few hours while they waited for the traffic to pick up and the ‘choice chicks’ to show up, and after that, Sam might as well have been a wall ornament. He was occasionally asked his opinion on one of the women Dean had his eye on, but for the most part, he was ignored. Not that he expected any different. He sat there nursing his own drink as Dean dove into the crowd of women until he finally hit pay dirt and left with her. Sam just finished the drink he was on and headed back to the bunker, knowing that Dean wouldn’t be back until early morning, if then. Thankfully, it wasn’t too long of a walk. Only a couple miles. Sam could walk that in his sleep. It was slightly more difficult when he was drinking, but that was why he’d only drank enough to take the edge off and wasn’t more than slightly buzzed. This was a regular enough occurrence that he knew the drill. 

 

The next morning, Sam stopped short at the sight of Dean in the kitchen again, and like last time, looked at the clock to see that it was still early. “Two days in a row? And after a night out?” Sam asked surprised as he once again turned off the radio. 

“What are you talking about Sammy?” Dean asked with a laugh. “Did you get into the good stuff last night or something?” 

“You’re up early…cooking breakfast again,” Sam pointed out. 

“Dude, I haven’t cooked breakfast in weeks,” Dean told him looking at him suspiciously. 

“You just cooked breakfast yesterday,” Sam argued. 

“I didn’t even wake up until almost lunch time yesterday,” Dean told him, rolling his eyes, as he sat at the table. 

Sam was still trying to figure out what was going on, when Dean said, “So I had this amazing dream about this curvy blonde chick and she was…”

“Dude! Stop! I don’t want to know!” Sam said on reflex before it dawned on him and he slammed his head on the table. No. Not again. 

“Sammy?” Dean asked concerned. 

“Gabriel!” Sam bellowed in response, but the archangel stayed conspicuously absent. 

“Sam?” Dean asked again. 

“The little shit is doing it again! It’s Mystery Spot all over again!” Sam snapped. 

“So…what…you’re reliving the same day?” Dean asked trying to keep up with the conversation. “Does that mean I died yesterday…today…whatever.”

“I don’t know. We split up after you left the bar with some woman,” Sam told him. 

“Was she hot?” Dean asked with a smirk. 

“Seriously? You might have died and that’s what you’re worried about?” 

“Well if I’m gonna die with some chick, at least I want her to be a hot one,” Dean said with a shrug, not seeing much point in worrying about it since he was obviously alive now. “I’m gonna go watch some cartoons. You coming, or are you gonna go off and do nerd stuff all day?” 

“I’m coming,” Sam said narrowing his eyes. He wasn’t letting his brother out of his sight today. They watched cartoons until lunchtime and then Sam went with him to get the burgers for lunch. He managed to talk Dean into staying home instead of hitting the bar again though. He wanted to make sure he stayed alive. It was after midnight when Dean went to bed and Sam followed suit. 

 

When Sam woke up he went to the kitchen again, hoping it was all a bad dream, and he groaned when he saw Dean standing at the stove making breakfast. He walked over and turned down the radio which was, once again, blaring AC/DC. He wondered if he would end up hating Back in Black just as much as he did Heat of the Moment. At least Dean hadn’t died though. That was one thing going for them. In fact, nothing bad had happened at all, so what was Gabriel’s angle? What was he up to? It was just a lazy day around the bunker. Where was the fun in that?

Sam, once again, had to keep from hearing about Dean’s dream in too much detail, and then when Dean went to watch cartoons, Sam went to the library. He did tell Dean he wanted to go with him for lunch though. He was sure that Gabriel was lurking around somewhere and he intended to spot him, even if it took another hundred Saturdays for the archangel to slip up again. In fact, it might be a good idea to refresh his memory of that whole thing so he could more easily spot the signs. “I’m heading out for a bit. I’ll be back later,” Sam told him and headed to the nearest bookstore, hoping they had what he was looking for. 

It ended up taking three different bookstores before he found one that carried the Supernatural books one town over, and he rather nervously and embarrassedly bought the one called Mystery Spot, and headed back to the bunker to read it. He still remembered Dean’s deaths with startling clarity even after all these years, but the rest of the details escaped him now. It was funny to think that after reliving the same day over a hundred times that he would actually forget things, but between hell and everything else, he’d basically lived a few hundred years since then, so it did make at least a little bit of sense. 

By the time he was heading back, he realized it was almost lunchtime anyway, so he called Dean and told him that he would get it, going to the same burger joint they had the last two times, and scrutinizing every person in the place, knowing that if Gabriel was going to be found it would likely be here. He tried to pay attention to anything that was different from yesterday, but yesterday most of his attention had been on Dean instead of the other people, so he couldn’t actually spot anything. By the time he got back to the bunker, he was in a really bad mood and practically threw Dean’s lunch at him before heading to his room to read the book while he ate his own. He definitely didn’t want his brother to catch him with one of the Supernatural books. That would be a disaster. Of course, it wasn’t like he would remember once the day started over again, but that wasn’t the point. 

He didn’t end up getting much of the book read before Dean dragged him out to watch some movies, not willing to take no for an answer, no matter how hard Sam tried, so he just sighed annoyedly and did as he was asked. Since Dean didn’t go for lunch, he didn’t know about ladies night, and thus wanted a movie marathon instead. Sam had every intention of heading back to his room to finish reading the book after placating his brother with a few movies, but he soon forgot about it, and by the time he went back to his room after midnight and found the book on his bed, he was too tired to do anything with it. He resigned himself to having to go hunt it down again tomorrow. At least this time he knew where to go.


	3. Chapter 3

When Sam woke up the next morning, he groaned upon walking into the kitchen again, and turned down the music as he sat at the table and began to bang his head on it. “Sammy?” Dean asked curiously. “What’s up?” 

“Mystery Spot,” Sam said in reply. 

“What do you…you don’t mean…”

“No, you don’t die, but yes, I’m living the same freaking day over and over again,” Sam said wearily. 

“Are you sure you didn’t just have too much to drink last night?” Dean asked, knowing that Gabriel was dead. 

“Yes, I’m sure. I didn’t drink anything last night, and even if I did, this is the fourth time I’ve lived this same day. And no, Dean, I don’t want to hear about your dream about the curvy blonde.”

That comment alone was enough to convince Dean, who just sighed heavily. “I’m guessing you tried getting Gabriel over here?”

“Of course, I did. That was the first thing I did,” Sam told him. “He didn’t show.”

“Not that surprising. But I thought he was dead?” 

“So did I,” Sam told him. “But obviously we were wrong.”

“Or someone else is doing it this time,” Dean pointed out. 

“What else has that kind of power?” Sam asked. “We know it’s beyond Cas’ power, so as far as I know only an archangel or god could do it.”

“Or Amara?” Dean asked pointedly. 

“Shit,” Sam paled. “Why though? What purpose would it serve?”

“I don’t know. What happens today?” Dean asked planning to try to help narrow it down. 

“Absolutely nothing,” Sam told him and when Dean gave him a hard look, he went into more detail. “The first time, we had breakfast, you watched cartoons all morning and then went to grab burgers for lunch while I stayed in the library, and then we went out to a bar that was hosting a ladies night, had a few drinks, you left with some chick…”

“Was she…”

“Yes, she was hot,” Sam interrupted rolling his eyes. “The second and third times, we didn’t go to the bar, we just hung around the bunker all day other than going for lunch.” He wasn’t going to mention his book buying expedition if he could help it. 

“Okay, yeah. Not much purpose there that I can see,” Dean said with a shrug. “Where have we been going for lunch? Maybe we can try someplace different today?” 

“No, I want to keep going to the same place. That’s the only place we run into other people, so the best place to find Gabriel, or whoever else is doing this,” Sam told him. 

“Okay, fine. Well, I’m going to watch the Saturday morning cartoons. Despite the fact that you may have seen them three times already, I haven’t…and don’t get technical with me,” Dean told him. 

Sam just rolled his eyes. “I’m gonna head out for a bit. Do some scouting, see if I can’t figure out what’s up.” It made a decent excuse. 

“Just be careful,” Dean told him, feeling that given the weird circumstances it needed to be said. 

“Of course,” Sam said as he grabbed the keys to one of the other old cars in the garage and headed back to the same bookstore he ended up at yesterday. Since he knew exactly where he was going and didn’t have to spend hours searching other bookstores, he was back in less than two hours and told Dean not to bother him until lunchtime. He was not going out after this godforsaken book a third time. 

He locked himself in his room and started reading again. He had only gotten about five pages in the first time, just about to the time they rolled into town, but by the end of the first chapter he was nearly dropping the book in shock as he re-read the last paragraph. 

‘The trickster saw the hunters drive into town and start questioning people, and he knew that he was being handed the perfect opportunity to do something. He knew what was coming for them. He knew that the apocalypse was looming, and maybe this was his chance to stop it. He knew that he couldn’t stop Dean from going to hell, but maybe, just maybe, he could stop Sam from going after revenge when he did.’

That whole thing was about trying to stop the apocalypse? Sam turned that over in his mind a few times, trying to figure it out. Trying to figure GABRIEL out. It didn’t make sense. How was killing Dean a hundred times in a time loop supposed to keep him from going after revenge? He eventually turned back to the book, hoping that the answers would be there. The end of the second chapter was just as confounding as the first, and actually made him set the book aside for a bit while he tried to wrap his head around the revelation. 

‘The trickster watched on as Dean died in his brother’s arms and he could see nothing but pure grief and disbelief on the hunter’s face and he felt his heart breaking along with Sam’s. Watching the man he loved go through this was just as much torture for him as it was for Sam. He could only hope that it worked. When Sam figured out who was behind it, all of his rage and hatred would be turned towards the trickster instead of the demon. If that was what it took to keep him off the path that would destroy him, then so be it.’

Gabriel was in love with him? Seriously? Since when? He was willing to make Sam hate him forever just to have a chance to save him. A chance that didn’t even work, in the end. Sam could feel the tears prickling his eyes as he hung his head in shame. He had hated Gabriel. With a passion. That hate had dulled to an intense dislike over the years, and he had thought that was as good as it would get but now…he didn’t know what he felt. Gratitude maybe? He definitely felt sorry for Gabriel, having to put up with what he did, now that he knew how Gabriel felt about him, and how much he was willing to sacrifice for him. 

He had yet to pick up the book again by the time Dean came and said he was going for lunch if Sam still wanted to join him. Sam did, but this time, there was a little less intensity in his eyes as he scanned the place for signs of Gabriel. He still wanted to find the archangel and get out of this crap, but he had resigned himself to actually listening to whatever lesson Gabriel was trying to teach him this time. By the time they were headed back to the bunker, Sam still had no idea where or who Gabriel was in this place, but apparently, he had time. Gabriel would slip up eventually. And Sam would be there to catch him when he did. 

Once they were back, Sam sequestered himself in his room again, feeling ready to finish reading the book now. Surely, there couldn’t be that many more insane revelations in there. He was still determined not to have to go buy it again. He read on through Dean’s many deaths, and was both annoyed and amused reading how hard Gabriel was trying to hold in his laughter when Sam and Dean said, in unison, “You think you're being funny but you're being really really childish! Sam Winchester wears makeup. Sam Winchester cries his way through sex. Sam Winchester keeps a ruler by the bed and every morning when he wakes up he…okay, enough!” At least there was enough distance between him and the embarrassing event that he could laugh about it now. 

Mostly though, the main emotion he got from Gabriel throughout the book was sadness. Reading about how much it killed him every time he saw Sam live through Dean’s death was nearly as difficult as just thinking about it now was for Sam. When he got to the part where Gabriel used a different syrup, he was surprised to find that it was intentional. Gabriel had wanted to get things over with. He’d had faith that Sam would pick up on that one tiny detail and had been completely prepared for the confrontation the next morning. The worst part of the whole thing was reading about Gabriel’s perspective of that confrontation and the following day. 

‘The trickster played it off as some big joke, but seeing the burning hatred in Sam’s eyes hurt him far more than he had expected. He was careful not to show anything in his appearance to hint at it, but just saying the cruel words to the hunter took much more effort than it should have as he looked into those mesmerizing hazel eyes, and as they hardened more and more, the trickster found his breath being stolen from his lungs. He snapped himself away sooner than he had intended, but he was getting far too close to breaking, and he had far too much to do still.’ 

Sam sucked in a sharp breath at the description. The thought that Gabriel himself was so close to breaking…over him…it was hard to take, and he had to stop reading for a few minutes after the next chapter when Dean died on that Wednesday, and Gabriel did break. The book had contained just as much of Gabriel’s grief and heart-ache as it had Sam’s, but that was the first time that Gabriel actually broke down and sobbed, and reading it had tears prickling in Sam’s own eyes as well. He looked at the clock and realized that he had time to go for a run to clear his head and still finish the book tonight. 

He found Dean getting ready to head out to the bar, but declined going with him this time, which Dean accepted, knowing that his brother had already done that today once, and didn’t question how off he seemed, figuring that it was just the stress of the situation. He couldn’t let the opportunity pass though to ask, “So who did I leave with last time?”

“What? Why?” Sam asked confused. 

“Well if I’m gonna be doing this day over and over again, I want to be sure to sample a wide variety of the wares, if you know what I mean, even if I won’t be able to remember it.”

“Oh, for Christ’s sake…it was a short brunette with curly hair. That’s all I remember,” Sam said rolling his eyes as he headed out.


	4. Chapter 4

Sam got back an hour later, and went to finish the book. He read about his hunting of Gabriel, and the intentional bread crumbs the archangel had left him along the way and finally realized how far gone he had been during that time, and how much it had torn Gabriel apart to see him like that. He read through the confrontation at the end where Gabriel was literally begging him to listen. To not let it all be for nothing. He learned that Gabriel storming out at the end was him reaching his breaking point again. Him realizing that it was all for nothing anyway. That he had failed, and Sam couldn’t stop himself from chucking the book at the wall in his anger at himself. Gabriel had tried so hard. He had gone through just as much torture as Sam had for a much better reason, but he just wouldn’t listen. If only he had listened…

Sam took a few deep breaths before heading out of his room to find some dinner. As he ate he tried to put the book out of his head, and instead tried to think about what this time could be about. What could Gabriel’s purpose be here? He was glad for the lack of trauma, of course, and he doubted that Gabriel would put himself through something like that again anyway, after reading about how hard that all was for him. That still didn’t get him any closer to figuring out why Gabriel would loop him into a boring uneventful day though. Unless…it was because it was boring and uneventful. Unless Gabriel wanted to give him time…but time for what? Time to figure out how to deal with Amara? If that was the case then that meant it could be done. He perked up at the thought. He actually had hope now. 

Sam spent the rest of the evening in the library. If he had to take years and read every single book in this library then he would do it and thank Gabriel for the opportunity, though he hoped it wouldn’t be that long. When he woke up the next morning, he didn’t bother explaining anything to Dean. He just ate his breakfast…after cutting of Dean’s description of his dream, yet again, and made his way back to the library. He declined going to the bar again, and just kept reading and researching. He was starting with magical theory, since that seemed to be the most likely place for humans to start when dealing with something so powerful. There wasn’t exactly any lore to help with a being that had been locked away since before time began, so he was starting from scratch. 

Every morning after that, he started the day by making a list of what he knew about Amara. He’d realized that if he could keep that in mind while reading, it might make it more likely for something useful to jump out at him. He took the opportunity every day to go for a run, just so he wouldn’t go stir crazy with nothing else to do but research and once a month, by his time that was, he would hit the bar with Dean to take a break. Other than that, his time was spent in the library. 

He finally burned out about six months in, and decided he needed to get his mind on something else for a while, but after his mind kept coming back to Gabriel, he realized that he wanted to understand more about him, so he steeled himself and went out to buy Tall Tales. In many ways it was an easier read, and learning what kind of people Gabriel was killing really opened his eyes quite a bit. It was rather surreal to read about Gabriel falling in love with him though. He winced a bit when he read about Gabriel noticing Sam tossing Dean the stake to kill him with and he remembered the hurt look on Gabriel’s face as Dean stabbed him. 

Once he was done with that one, he wished there were books for the other two times they’d encountered Gabriel as well, but then he remembered something about the unpublished works having been leaked online, so he grabbed his laptop to start searching. It took him quite a while to find them and when he did, he groaned and slapped himself on the head. He could have just downloaded copies of the first two rather than trudging all the way out to the bookstore. Oh well. What was done was done. He clicked download for Changing Channels and Hammer of the Gods, snorting at the titles. Knowing what he did now, he was more than curious about Gabriel’s motives for the whole tv land escapade. He couldn’t have really wanted them to say yes could he?

It turned out that he did. Sam wondered if he would ever get a chance to see Gabriel without apparently ripping his heart out. Gabriel truly had thought it was inevitable, and just wanted to get it over with. It was a lot like watching someone you love dying slowly and painfully. As much as you don’t want them to die, some part of you wants to hurry up and get it over with so you can grieve and hopefully, someday, move on. That was the sense he got from Gabriel through most of that book. That and his bitterness that his gamble at the Mystery Spot hadn’t paid off. That Sam hadn’t listened and started everything anyway. 

He read about Gabriel’s renewed hope at the end, when Dean’s comment about standing up to his family gave him an idea. Another way out. Sam had wondered why Gabriel had just let it go so easily after that. He didn’t seem like the type to just let it drop and he could easily have made sure they didn’t have access to holy oil the next time he trapped them somewhere. It struck him though, that Gabriel’s emotional turmoil that had been so obvious then, hadn’t been about the apocalypse or family drama at all. It had been about losing Sam. He figured that Gabriel had probably worked out most of his feelings over the family drama a long time ago. 

Everything that happened at Elysian Fields though…that knocked Sam for a major loop. He had known it would since that was where Gabriel died, he just hadn’t been prepared for just how bad it would be. He read about Gabriel’s panic when he realized they had been captured by the gods, and the casual way the gods discussed killing them. He read about Gabriel’s frustration when they insisted on saving the other people rather than just getting out of there. It seemed that Gabriel knew that he would be caught, but did it anyway, just because Sam insisted. That had been hard enough, but when Gabriel came back…after Lucifer was there. He knew that he was about to die. He knew and he didn’t care. Getting Sam out of there was all he cared about. 

If Sam had realized back then that they were leaving Gabriel to certain death, he might have been more hesitant to leave, but he hadn’t realized. He read about Gabriel’s relief as he felt them leave and was beyond impressed by his speech to Lucifer before he was stabbed in the heart. Why on earth Chuck had written Gabriel’s dying thoughts, Sam didn’t know, but he could certainly have done without that simple, “Good luck, Sam,” that Gabriel thought as he died at his brother’s hand. 

Sam pushed the computer away when he finished and took a deep breath as he considered everything he learned. He couldn’t say what exactly he really felt for Gabriel right now, but he was pretty sure that he wanted to give them a shot. See what happened and where it could go. He closed his eyes and prayed for Gabriel to come talk to him, but didn’t get a response. He wondered, not for the first time, whether it really was Gabriel behind this or not. Whether Gabriel actually was dead. He didn’t think that Gabriel would just ignore a prayer like that if he’d gotten it. 

He pushed that thought out of his head, along with all other thoughts of Gabriel. No matter who was behind it, this was still an opportunity he couldn’t pass up, and he had taken a break for long enough. It was time to get back to work. He went back to his previous schedule that consisted of ninety nine percent of his waking time in the library, learning as much as he could. It was almost another six months before he woke up and walked to the kitchen to find it blissfully empty and quiet and he nearly jumped for joy before making himself a nice fruit salad and oatmeal for breakfast after a year of nothing but eggs and bacon. And thank god, he could stop hearing about that stupid dream. He didn’t think he would ever be able to listen to Back in Black again without cringing. But he had made it through, though part of him almost wanted to ask Gabriel to put him back in so he could get some more research done. He was making progress, yes, but he still wasn’t particularly close to a solution.


	5. Chapter 5

After breakfast, he headed to his room, and wondered if Gabriel would come talk to him now that it seemed to be over. “Gabriel? If you’re there…if you can hear me…will you come talk to me? Please?” 

“Sup Samsquatch,” Gabriel asked lazily, appearing leaning against the wall. “You find another bus to throw me under? Oh wait…of course you did. My dear old auntie,” he said with a trace of bitterness. 

“No. That’s…that’s not why I called,” Sam said caught off guard by his appearance and his assumption. 

“No?” Gabriel asked raising an eyebrow skeptically. 

“No. I’m working on a solution to that. Not that your help wouldn’t be appreciated. It would, but I’m not asking,” Sam told him. 

“Then why did you call me?” Gabriel asked confused. 

Sam had a hundred things he wanted to say. A hundred questions he wanted to ask, but the first one that came out was, “Have dinner with me?” 

Gabriel blinked at him for a moment before he found words. Well A word…sort of. “Huh?” 

“I…I was hoping you would…have dinner with me sometime…and…and maybe we could see a movie or something?” Sam asked awkwardly, blushing brightly. 

“What, you mean like…a date?” Gabriel asked incredulously. Where the hell was all this coming from?

“Yeah. Like a…a date,” Sam said looking down as he rubbed his hand over the back of his neck, looking at the ground. Every second it took Gabriel to answer, Sam was more and more unsure of himself. What if Gabriel’s feelings had changed since then? What if Sam had lost his chance before he ever even knew he had it? 

“Oookaay,” Gabriel said confusedly, as he tried to wrap his head around the complete absurdity of the situation. 

“Okay?” Sam asked hopefully, head snapping up to look at the archangel and Gabriel nodded, still looking suspiciously at Sam though. “Tonight good?” 

“I suppose…What did you have in mind?” Gabriel asked, starting to regain his bearings a bit. At least on the outside. 

“I…um…hadn’t really thought that far ahead,” Sam said sheepishly. 

“Well I guess you have until tonight to figure it out,” Gabriel told him with a smirk. He wasn’t investing much time or effort into this until he knew it wasn’t a joke, so this was Sam’s ball game. “I’ll see you at five,” he added as he disappeared. 

Sam took a deep breath once he realized he was alone. That had been much harder than he had expected. There had been a lot more that he wanted to say, and he’d wanted to ask Gabriel about the time loop, but he figured he could bring it up on their date tonight…Holy crap. He had a date tonight. With Gabriel. And he had no idea what to do. Sam sat hard on his bed as he tried to get his breathing to start up again. 

Once he was sure he could stand without blacking out, he went and got his computer and started looking for restaurants around here. He figured Gabriel could probably fly them anywhere in the world, but if he’d wanted to he would have offered. He’d made it perfectly clear that this was all in Sam’s hands, so he would take care of everything. He was torn between fancy and romantic as a good first date kind of thing or fun and easy-going as a more Gabriel kind of thing. He found a pizzeria and arcade, and considered that for a moment, but he remembered he had mentioned dinner and a movie, so filed that away for another time. After a few minutes, Sam found a third choice. Simple and easy-going with a lot of romantic potential. A small country kitchen type place just a few miles away from the only movie theatre in Lebanon. It was perfect. Now to find the perfect movie. He went to the theatres website and after reading reviews and watching trailers he decided on Pixels. It seemed like something Gabriel would definitely get a kick out of. 

Crisis averted, he could now turn his attention to not freaking out in the next six hours before their date. And figuring out what to wear, he groaned as he put his head in his hands. Jesus, he was being such a girl about this. He bit the bullet and started going through his clothes, trying to figure out what to wear. After going through everything and finding nothing nice enough, he briefly considered wearing his fed suit, but threw that thought away as soon as it came up. That was far too fancy. He finally settled on one of his nicer pairs of jeans that were new enough not to be ripped or stained, and one of his few button-downs that wasn’t plaid. 

He ventured out from his room just in time for Dean to get back with lunch and he pondered how to break his date to his brother. Dean would surely notice him leaving all dressed up…for their standards at least. Finally, he just decided to bite the bullet. “So, I’ve got a date tonight.”

“Like a date, date?” Dean asked surprised. They didn’t usually do dates. Their lifestyle wasn’t exactly built for real dating. 

“Yeah. It’s um…with Gabriel actually,” Sam said hesitantly. 

Dean choked on his food at that. Once he was no longer in danger of suffocating he looked at Sam like he was insane. “With…Gabriel? Um…isn’t he dead…and a he…and don’t we hate him?” Dean asked the three most prominent questions on his mind. 

“No, yes, and no,” Sam answered. 

“But…okay I’m gonna need a little more than that,” Dean said dumbfounded. 

“Long story short, Gabriel is alive, not sure how yet, and the only thing I really hated him for was Mystery Spot which, as it turns out, he did to try and keep me from going after Lilith and starting the apocalypse, so yeah. I kinda forgave him for that one.” He wasn’t going to go into detail about how he knew that or about Gabriel’s feelings for him. 

“Okay…but since when are you into guys?” Dean asked. 

“I’ve always been kinda into both. I’ve just never had much opportunity to date a guy before,” Sam said with a shrug, trying to act like he wasn’t as worried as he was about his brother’s reaction to that. 

Dean just blinked at his brother for a moment as he wrapped his head around that before he just shrugged and said, “Okay.”

“That’s all you have to say? Okay?” 

“Well what do you want me to say?” Dean asked. “It’s a little unsettling that I didn’t know something so major about you, but it’s not like it bothers me. You’re still my brother. As far as it being Gabriel of all people that you’re dating…well, you’re a little old for me to start quibbling over who you choose to date. Do I like it? No. But it’s your choice. Just make sure he keeps his tricky little mitts off my car and I’ll deal.” 

Sam grinned at him, relieved that he wasn’t going to catch a lot of grief over this. “Okay. Sure,” Sam told him. 

Once they finished eating, Sam made his way to the library. He felt like he’d spent enough time in here for two lifetimes lately, but he needed something to keep his mind off his date so he wasn’t a nervous wreck by the time it came around. He didn’t end up getting much done between his mind wandering and checking the time every five minutes, but it helped a little bit. Maybe. 

At four o-clock, he gave up and went to jump in the shower. He hesitated a moment over the cologne before he decided, in for a penny, in for a pound and spritzed it on and Jesus, just wearing it made him even more nervous. He didn’t even know why the hell he was nervous to begin with. He knew how Gabriel felt about him. Looking at him, you would think it was the other way around. Once he was dressed he sat down on his bed to do some breathing exercises as he watched the clock. At five minutes until five, he headed out to the garage, not really wanting Dean to see Gabriel and risk him saying the wrong thing. He knew that Gabriel would likely just fly to him directly, rather than a specific place. 

Once he was in the garage, he realized that he had another big decision ahead of him. Which car to take. The Impala was out of the question. Even if Dean would let him take it, he wasn’t sure how much he trusted Gabriel not to do anything to it, and given the fact that Dean’s accepting mood depended on his car not being messed with, he didn’t particularly want to chance it. He figured if he hadn’t made a decision by the time Gabriel arrived, he would let the archangel choose.


	6. Chapter 6

When Gabriel appeared right in front of him, Sam almost felt his heart stop. How had he never realized just how gorgeous Gabriel was before. The archangel was wearing a pair of skinny jeans and a black cashmere turtleneck that was the perfect contrast to his lighter coloring. Gabriel would never admit that he peeked in on Sam a few minutes before to get an idea of the intended dress code. When Sam didn’t say anything, Gabriel raised an eyebrow at him, and Sam finally shook off his stupor. “So, I figure I’ll let you pick the car,” Sam told him. “As long as it’s not the Impala,” he added. 

Gabriel looked around and picked an old red convertible. Not nearly as flashy as today’s convertibles, but flashy enough. “So, I do hope you have a better idea of the plan than you did this morning?” Gabriel asked as they got in the car. 

Sam gave a nervous chuckle. “Yeah. I do.”

“You planning to share?” Gabriel asked, still on his guard for a trick. He had a plan in case this whole thing ended up being designed to mock him somehow. He sure as hell wouldn’t show how much it would hurt, but oh would it hurt Sam when he was done with him. 

“Not really. You’ll see soon enough,” Sam told him, wiping his sweaty palms on the steering wheel nonchalantly…or at least he hoped it was nonchalantly anyway. 

Gabriel narrowed his eyes for half a second and was even more on his guard now, but he didn’t say anything else, as they drove the rest of the way in silence. Thankfully, it was less than a ten-minute drive. Lebanon was a very small town. When they got to the restaurant, Sam held the door open for Gabriel and once they were seated, Sam wiped his palms again on his jeans before reaching across the table and taking the archangel’s hand, trying his best to ignore the speed at which his heart was beating, especially when he felt Gabriel tense up at the contact. “What are we doing here, Sam?” Gabriel asked suspiciously. 

“I thought we already decided that this is a…a date?” Sam half asked, confused as to what exactly Gabriel was asking. 

“Okay, but why? Last I knew you hated me. Or at best, barely tolerated me. I mean, you didn’t say a word as I walked to my death, and in the two years since I’ve been resurrected, you haven’t prayed for me once before today. Hell, I’d even hoped that you would mount some sort of rescue mission once Cassie told you that Metatron had resurrected me and was holding me prisoner, but nothing. And now this…If you want something from me, it would be easier to just ask.”

Sam sucked in a sharp breath at Gabriel’s words. Put like that, he could see why Gabriel was so suspicious, and Sam knew that he had some explaining to do. “I didn’t hate you, Gabriel. I didn’t realize you were going out there to die. I really thought you had a chance to win, or I wouldn’t have just walked away so easily. As far as not praying or rescuing you since you’ve been resurrected, I never knew. If I had, then things would have been different. I…I don’t want anything from you except for this.” 

“This meaning a date? What changed?” Gabriel asked confused. Gabriel knew for a fact that if he had asked the hunter out back before he died, he would have been turned down flat. 

“I…well…” Sam blushed and looked down at the table. “When you put me in the time loop yesterday…”

“Wait…I did what?” Gabriel interrupted. 

“The time loop? I relived yesterday every day for a whole year?” Sam said confused himself now. 

“I have no idea what you’re talking about. I haven’t had anything to do with you or your brother since I was resurrected,” Gabriel told him. 

“But then who could have done it?” Sam asked perplexed. 

“I don’t know,” Gabriel said trying to consider the matter himself. 

“Is that why you didn’t respond when I prayed to you in there?” Sam asked. 

Gabriel rose his eyebrows at that. “I never got any prayers. The only way for prayers to be blocked is if you were in a locked dimension and the only people that can do that are the archangels and our father. Even dear old auntie can’t create new dimensions,” Gabriel told him. 

“So, you’re saying that God stuck me in a time loop? Why?” 

“I don’t think it was him. I don’t sense his power anywhere around you and it takes a while to dissipate, but that is very worrisome. That means it would have to be another archangel, but unless someone made a jailbreak we don’t know of, Michael and Lucifer are still in the cage and Raphael is definitely still dead, meaning I’m the only one, but I know I didn’t do it. Unless, of course, I’m time travelling from the future, but even then I shouldn’t be able to affect the present. Of course an alternate time dimension may be an exception to that, never actually tried it, now that I think on it. Hmm,” Gabriel got lost in thought for a few minutes before he shook himself out of it. That was something to consider later. “But never mind that. So something happened while you were in this time loop to change things with us?” 

“Well…yeah…see…I thought it was you doing it, and since I don’t remember much about the last time it was so long ago, I…um…I bought the book to read to refresh my memory to see if there was anything there that could help me get out,” Sam said blushing brightly. 

“The book?” Gabriel asked. 

“Yeah. You know…the ‘Winchester Gospels’?” 

“No, I don’t. What are those?” Gabriel asked. This conversation was just confusing him more and more the longer it went on. 

“The books written by the prophet, Chuck Shurley about our lives.”

“There is no prophet, Chuck Shurley,” Gabriel told him, sure that this was some kind of a trick now. “There was a Charles about two hundred years ago that never ‘awoke’ and there is a female Charley in about four hundred years, but neither of them have the last name Shurley.”

“But…he saw everything in our lives and wrote it down. Cas said he was a prophet, tapped to write the Winchester Gospels and he had archangels protecting him and all. Maybe he was added after you left?” Sam suggested. 

“Not possible. The prophets can’t change. It’s one of the immutable laws. So, either you’re lying to me, someone lied to you, or someone managed to trick all the other angels.”

“Well I’m not lying to you, and I doubt Cas lied to us, so…” Sam trailed off wondering who or what would have the power to trick all the angels like that. 

Gabriel paled a bit at that. He knew who had the power to trick all the angels. His father. And if he was writing tales, ones that included him even, for the whole world to read…that couldn’t be anything good. He immediately promised himself to look up those books the second this date was over so he could see just how much damage had really been done. He could get a bit of the lowdown from Sam though. “So, something in this book made you stop hating me?” Gabriel asked. 

“Yeah. I basically figured out why you did what you did. How the Mystery Spot was just trying to stop the apocalypse, and since that’s the only thing I ever hated you for, it was kinda hard to hate you after that.”

“Ok so how did not hating me turn into dating me?” Gabriel asked, still not sure where this was going, but needing to understand before he could let this go. This was the one person in all of creation that had the power to utterly destroy him. He had to tread carefully here. 

“Well…the books…they just…helped me to understand you a lot better and I realized that…um…there could be something there,” Sam said shifting uncomfortably. 

Gabriel realized that was the best answer he was going to get, so he let it go at that, and found himself cautiously optimistic. Very cautiously. That was enough to prompt him to take Sam’s offered hand though. They would see how the rest of the evening went. Sam gave Gabriel a nervous smile as they finally began to peruse the menu, Gabriel flipping straight to the desserts, of course. 

Their dinner, Sam’s chicken salad, and Gabriel’s whole cheesecake was spent in rather stilted conversation from both sides. Sam hoped things started to go better later on and he could get over his nerves. If he didn’t know any better he would say Gabriel was suffering from a bit of nerves himself. Of course, given his feelings and how long he’d had them, he may very well be just as nervous as Sam. He just had a hard time picturing Gabriel being nervous about anything. I mean, it could be going worse, but it could be going better too. 

When they left the restaurant, Gabriel asked, “How far is the next stop?” 

“About two miles,” Sam told him. 

“Do you mind if we walk? If we have time that is.”

“Sure, yeah. The movie doesn’t start for an hour, so there’s time.”

“Good. I’m not a big fan of cars in general,” Gabriel admitted. 

“I can imagine,” Sam said with a grin imagining the idea of Gabriel sitting still for long periods of time without something to entertain him. He reached out and took the archangel’s hand, and Gabriel threaded their fingers together as they walked. 

Gabriel was the one sporting a grin when he saw what movie Sam had planned for them to watch. He’d been meaning to see this one and just hadn’t gotten around to it yet. Sam got a large popcorn and some twizzlers while Gabriel just loaded up on candy and they took their seats in the theatre. When the lights went down, Sam bit his lip nervously before reaching up and putting an arm around Gabriel’s shoulder. Gabriel tensed for a moment, but then relaxed and shifted himself closer to Sam. By the time the movie was half over, the archangel was resting his head lightly on Sam’s shoulder and Sam’s arm had moved so that his hand was on Gabriel’s side and was rubbing light circles there with his thumb. Sam was surprised how comfortable this was. It seemed that this part was working at least. 

There was more than once during the movie that Sam almost kissed Gabriel, but he kept chickening out. It wasn’t until they got back to the bunker, and got out of the car that Sam realized that it was now or never. He reached forward and took one of Gabriel’s hands first, and the archangel looked up at him and Sam could see both the hope and the worry in his eyes. Sam bit his lip again as he tried to keep his breathing normal, and his heart threatened to beat of his chest as he stepped forward and moved his other hand to the archangel’s cheek before slowly leaning forward and pressed his lips to Gabriel’s, and suddenly trying to keep breathing was no longer an option as all of his breath was sucked out of his body and he just lost himself in the moment, as Gabriel’s tongue snaked out to deepen the kiss, and Sam gladly opened for him, pulling the archangel closer in the process. 

When they finally broke apart, both needing air, as Gabriel hadn’t managed to breathe either, Gabriel gave Sam a soft smile. “Goodnight Sam,” he said in almost a whisper, leaning up to press one more soft, quick kiss to the hunter’s lips before disappearing. He needed to get away before he let things to too far. He definitely wasn’t one to balk at sex on a first date usually, but this was different. This was Sam. He couldn’t go there until he was sure. Sure that this wouldn’t be taken away. Sure that Sam really did feel something for him. He couldn’t let himself fall until he knew that Sam would be there to catch him.


	7. Chapter 7

Gabriel appeared back in his apartment and took a few deep breaths to steady himself. It was like he was suddenly being handed everything he ever wanted out of the blue and he couldn’t stop himself from looking for the catch. He found himself both over the moon happy, and completely and utterly terrified at the same time. Once he felt like he could breathe without difficulty again, he set himself to working on his task for the night. Finding those damn books and seeing how bad it was. 

He snapped his fingers and a laptop appeared in front of him. It took him a little while to find them, and he quickly downloaded them and started reading. It didn’t take long into Tall Tales before he was fuming. How dare he? Just airing his secrets and feelings like that for the world to see? There was a reason he had masks, and kept them firmly in place. He didn’t WANT people to know what he was thinking and feeling and shouldn’t it be his choice damnit! This was a nightmare. 

It wasn’t until he started reading Mystery Spot that he completely lost it and smashed the computer against the wall. That complete and utter bastard! He didn’t mind so much have his motives there aired. He’d been trying to teach Sam that very thing, but to let the whole world see how much it affected him. How…weak he was…it was beyond the pale. After a few breathing exercises to calm himself down, he snapped up another computer and started reading again where he left off. When he got to the point where it described him breaking, he was so pissed he couldn’t even see straight, but managed to restrain himself before smashing another computer. 

He hadn’t thought he could get more furious, but when he realized that his father had spilled his deepest darkest secret in Changing Channels, he realized that he actually could. Everything that knew him would know who he really was now. Not only that, but they would know that the easiest way to get to him would be through Sam, and he had a lot of enemies. Possibly their only saving grace right now is that they thought he was dead, so Sam wasn’t worth the effort. If that ever changed…it would be a disaster. He waited until he finished them all before he smashed the computer again and started pacing. After a little while he realized that he HAD to work off some of this anger before he completely blew. 

Gabriel transported himself to a little out of the way place in the arctic sea and snapped his fingers and a massive hurricane started to blow. That wasn’t enough so he snapped again and quite a few underwater volcanoes erupted. A few new islands later, and it still didn’t help much so he said screw it. He snapped himself to the other side of the universe, a nice little galaxy that hadn’t gone so far as to hold any life at all, much less sentient life, and started blowing things up. Planets, moons, asteroids, space debris, and only when there was nothing else in the galaxy larger than dust he created a supernova of the sun and only then did he feel like he could think around his anger again, and returned to his apartment to resume his pacing. 

It wasn’t long after that when he got a prayer from Sam asking if he wanted to do something later. Shit. He knew that the general human custom was to wait three days before contacting someone you just had a first date with and he wished that Sam followed that custom. He could use a few days to get himself together, but then again, he really did need to confront Sam about this sooner rather than later. The only problem was that he wasn’t a hundred percent sure he wouldn’t take his anger at his father out on Sam. He was only annoyed with Sam. He was livid with his father. He knew that he needed to try and keep that separate in his mind as he went to see Sam. 

“Please stop, Sam,” Gabriel said as he reappeared in the hunters’ library. 

“Stop what?” Sam asked worriedly. Did he mean stop praying to him? Stop trying to spend time with him? Had he misread things so badly?

“I read the books last night, so I know you know…everything. I don’t need or want your pity,” Gabriel told him trying to keep his voice even. 

“You think…no! No, this isn’t pity, Gabriel. I swear,” Sam rushed to assure him. 

“Okay then it’s obligation or gratitude or something. You think you owe me, so you’re trying to give me what you think I want, but this isn’t what I want Sam. Not at all. Everything I did was so that you could live free and happy. That’s all I want or need in return, so don’t…don’t try to shackle yourself to me for that. Please,” he said closing his eyes and turning away. 

He didn’t see Sam walking towards him, and his eyes snapped open when he felt the hunter take his hands. “That’s not what this is either, Gabriel,” Sam said gently. “This is real. Not faked, not fabricated, not a trick. It wouldn’t have mattered if those books spilled how you felt about me or not. They helped me to understand you better. To know you better. And I realized just how incredible you are.”

“I don’t need your worship either,” Gabriel snapped, feeling even more exposed in this moment than he had reading the books. 

“This isn’t worship either, Gabriel,” Sam said, lips twitching in almost amusement. He knew what Gabriel was doing. He was trying to talk himself out of believing this and he wasn’t going to let that happen. If he wanted to end it, then so be it, but it wouldn’t be because he believed that it was less than genuine. “You aren’t incredible because you’re an archangel. You’re incredible because of your strength and determination and willingness to sacrifice everything for someone you care about. I could never have put myself through half of what you did and come out the other side in any sort of functioning shape. I could never have survived it.”

Gabriel scoffed. “You never know what you can survive until you have to.”

“Maybe so, but that doesn’t change the fact that you did. You dealt with things that would have destroyed me. Would have destroyed most people. And that’s just the little I know from the books. Once I started to understand you…to really SEE you…it was inevitable that I would start to care about you, Gabriel.”

“So, what? You read a few of my secrets and suddenly fell madly in love with me?” Gabriel asked sarcastically. 

Sam sucked in a sharp breath at that question and forced down his rising panic. He wasn’t quite ready to jump to LOVE yet, but he knew that he had to address this or he’d never have a chance to get there. “I don’t know what I feel for you yet, but I know there is something. Is it love? Probably not yet, but it can be if we let it. I just…I do care about you. A lot. And I want…I NEED to see where this goes. If you can’t live with that, I understand, but don’t just leave because you think this isn’t real because it is, Gabriel. It’s very real.”

Gabriel took a few deep breaths as he tamped down the anger that wasn’t directed at Sam while he considered how to respond to that. If anything, Sam’s lukewarm confession of vague feelings did make him more willing to believe him. If he had any other kind of agenda he wouldn’t have hesitated to declare his undying love. Still… “Promise me that you will never keep this going out of obligation or pity or gratitude or anything else other than an actual desire to be with me.”

“I promise,” Sam said earnestly with a sigh of relief, realizing that he had won something here. 

“O-okay,” Gabriel agreed tentatively. 

Sam grinned. “So, did you want to hang out or something?” he asked hopefully. 

“Not today, Sam,” Gabriel told him evenly and at the hurt look on the hunter’s face that he tried not so successfully to cover up, Gabriel hastened to explain. “It’s not that I don’t want to be around you. It’s just…I’ve just found out that every secret thought and feeling I’ve had has been exposed for the entire world to see. Every weakness I have has been aired to everyone, and I am beyond pissed. I’m doing my best not to direct that anger at you because it’s not you I’m angry at, but I just…need some time to cool off so that I don’t accidentally blow up at you.”

Sam gave him a sympathetic look. He hadn’t looked at it like that, but now that he was thinking about it, it was rather unfair to Gabriel. It was much like what he and Dean had felt when they first found out about the books, but it was even worse for Gabriel. “Yeah. Okay. I get that. Just…come by when you’re ready?” 

“I’ll do that,” Gabriel said with a tense smile before returning Sam’s gentle kiss and disappearing.


	8. Chapter 8

Once Gabriel was gone, Sam sank into the chair he had vacated and tried to consider how Gabriel must be feeling right now. Sure, he and Dean had far too much of their lives exposed for comfort in those damn books, but not nearly to the degree Gabriel had. Now that he was thinking about it, he didn’t know what Chuck was thinking. It was like nothing was off limits when it came to Gabriel. Even when it should have been. Sam’s eyes went wide as he realized that Chuck had even spilled the fact that Loki was an archangel. The chances of other gods reading the books were slim, but the angels might just read them, and then they would know. Holy crap. No wonder Gabriel was pissed. 

Sam got a smirk on his face, that he might have been alarmed to find looked very much like Gabriel’s smirk when he was up to something particularly vicious. Sam was about to do something he swore he would never do. He was going to use his hacking skills for personal gain. He grabbed his computer and went to work. After hacking police databases, traffic cams, and even the FBI once or twice, hacking a silly unsecured webpage was child’s play. He erased everything. All the books, published and unpublished, along with any comments and discussions about them, leaving only one image on the page if anyone tried to pull it up. Gabriel’s sigil. He’d even added a little blood dripping from it, hoping whoever ran the site would take it as a warning not to repost. Either way, he would keep checking every so often and do this again if he needed to. He couldn’t do much about the published books, unfortunately, but the unpublished works were no longer in circulation. And given that Gabriel’s identity was only in the unpublished works, that would have to be good enough. 

 

Gabriel continued pacing in his apartment as he seethed and tried unsuccessfully to let it go. When that failed, he started thinking up all sorts of creative payback he could use against his father. Not that it would work given who he was, but thinking it up seemed to help a bit at least. The next day, he decided he wanted to double check some of the details. He knew his secrets had been spilled, but he hadn’t been paying much attention to look for places where he might be able to spin things in his favor. He snapped up another computer and went back to the website only to find nothing but his own sigil dripping with blood. He blinked at it for a moment before he started to laugh. He could see that it was done with entirely human means, which meant that it wasn’t a warning to him from any of his enemies. He figured it was probably a warning for the ones who ran the site and he sent up a mental thank you to Sam. It didn’t completely undo the damage, but it did help, and there were still the print books, but it was the thought that counted. It did lighten his mood just a bit. 

 

His little act of hacktivism done, Sam turned his attention back to the Amara problem. He might as well use the time while Gabriel was getting himself together to do something useful. He spent most of the remainder of the week in the library and by the time Gabriel showed up again on Friday, he had come to the conclusion that he needed more time. Sure, he was making progress, but this was seriously advanced magical theory he was trying to learn. It would take years at this rate. Still, no reason to jump right into business. “Hey, Gabe,” Sam said with a bright smile when he noticed Gabriel appear in the library next to him. 

“Heya Samsquatch. How’s it hanging?” Gabriel asked cheerfully. 

Sam laughed and quickly found himself floundering for a topic of conversation, so he decided to bite the bullet. “So, turns out I might need your help to deal with Amara after all…not the way you think though,” he rushed to add. 

“What do you need?” Gabriel asked narrowing his eyes suspiciously. 

“Well you remember how I said that someone put me in a time loop for a year?” Gabriel nodded. “During that year I was reading up on magical theory and a few other subjects to try and find a way to deal with her, but there’s just not enough time. I was wondering if you could do that again?” 

“What, put you in a time loop?” Gabriel asked dumbfounded. The idea that Sam would actually allow and even WANT something that had caused him so much trauma before was crazy. 

“Yeah. Not like with anything major or bad happening. Just a simple lazy day so that I have more time to study,” Sam told him. “And…and I was hoping…” he trailed off biting his lip nervously. 

“Hoping what?” Gabriel asked curiously. 

“Hoping that you would be there, at least some of the days, so we could..you know…go out sometimes and get to know each other better and stuff,” Sam said blushing at how juvenile he sounded. 

“Just so that I understand this, you’re actually asking me to put you in a time loop and make you relive the same day over and over again?”

“Yeah. If it’s not too much trouble,” Sam added. 

“No, I guess not. It’s just…surprising,” Gabriel told him. Truth was it would take a whole lot of power, especially if he was going to loop himself too, but nothing he couldn’t spare. He had sworn after Mystery Spot that he would never put Sam…or himself…through that again, but this was different…right? “You make any progress on figuring out who it was that looped you the last time?” Gabriel asked. He doubted that Sam had, and he had been too distracted to try, but it was worth asking. 

“No. I don’t have any clue, but I’m not particularly worried about it. It worked out for the best, giving me needed time, but I would prefer to have a little more control over it if it happens again,” Sam told him. “I do wonder though…” 

“Wonder what?” 

“Well, ever since Amara was released, I keep having visions of the cage. I wonder if it’s connected to that somehow,” Sam told him having had another of those visions yesterday and it had him understandably off-kilter. “I mean, I almost started to wonder if God was telling me to go down there and talk to Lucifer but that doesn’t make sense.”

“Of course, it doesn’t make sense. It’s completely absurd. Don’t tell me you were actually considering it,” Gabriel said alarmed. 

“No. Not really. It’s not like it’s something I’d ever want to do under any circumstances,” Sam assured him. 

“Promise me that if you get the urge to do something that stupid that you will talk to me first? At least give me the chance to lock you up in an alternate dimension or something,” Gabriel half-joked. 

“I promise I will talk to you first, but how about we try talking me out of it first before the alternate dimension thing?” Sam suggested with a chuckle. 

“If you insist,” Gabriel quipped with an amused smirk before it fell. “Seriously though, these visions are not a good thing. Something has to be messing with your mind, and I’m nearly certain it’s not my father. I would be able to sense his power around you. It’s rather distinctive.”

“Is…is there any way you can find out?” 

“Well…if you’ll allow me to go poking around in your head a bit, I’ll see if I can figure it out,” Gabriel offered hesitantly. Technically he could do it with or without Sam’s permission, but he wouldn’t do it without. 

“You could…um…how much of my thoughts and memories would you see?” Sam asked nervously. 

“Seeing some would be inevitable, but I would try to limit it as much as possible. I should be able to keep from seeing anything more than flashes, but I can’t make any promises,” Gabriel told him honestly. 

Sam chewed his lower lip for a few minutes as he considered it. The idea of Gabriel poking around in his head and seeing his thoughts and memories wasn’t exactly appealing. There was quite a bit he didn’t really want Gabriel to see, but then again, Gabriel hadn’t exactly wanted Sam to know any of the stuff that was spilled about him in those books, so it would only be fair really. And Sam really did want to know…no he NEEDED to know who or what was messing with his head. “Okay. Do it,” he said finally. 

“Okay, I’ll do my best to keep away from your private stuff,” Gabriel promised. “Get comfortable. This is going to take a while and you’re going to be out like a light in the process.”

Sam walked over to the couch and laid down and Gabriel pulled one of the armchairs over before placing his hand on Sam’s forehead and closing his eyes letting his grace sink into the hunter’s head.


	9. Chapter 9

Gabriel pulled Sam’s consciousness with him. He wanted Sam to be aware of everything he saw, and also at least partly, wanted to be able to protect himself from any accusations that he was intentionally poking around where he shouldn’t be. When Sam materialized next to an image of Gabriel he blinked and looked around confused. “What is this?” 

“We’re in your mind, Sam-a-lam,” Gabriel told him as he looked around at what…to the untrained eye…looked like being right in the middle of the cosmos. “Thought it might be better if we did this together.”

“Thank you, Gabriel,” Sam said earnestly. He was glad he would get to have some level of control. It made this whole idea a lot more comfortable for him. “So…what do we do?” 

“Well, first we need to find these visions of yours,” Gabriel told him holding out a hand for the hunter. “Come on.”

Sam took his hand and they started walking. When Sam saw Gabriel trying to avoid coming into contact with the specks of light, he did the same. It wasn’t easy though. He was the first to bump into one and he suddenly found himself and Gabriel trapped in one of his nightmares about a clown from when he was a kid. Gabriel squeezed his hand and gave a little jerk and they found themselves back in the main area, but the move over balanced them, and Gabriel stumbled into another of those little sparks and Sam found himself on his first date with Jessica. 

Gabriel rolled his eyes and wrapped an arm around Sam’s waist, keeping him upright and stepping deliberately away, pulling Sam with him without anyone losing their balance this time and they were back in the expanse and steady on their feet. “Gotta watch your step, Samsquatch,” he quipped. 

“So, these little lights…they’re my memories?” Sam asked in awe as they started moving forward slowly again.

“And your thoughts, your dreams, your fears, everything in your mind is here,” Gabriel told him as he ducked a particularly energetic spark. 

“So, what are we looking for?” Sam asked. They all looked the same to him. 

“Anything foreign would be a dimmer light since it doesn’t really belong,” Gabriel told him and Sam nodded in understanding as they continued moving forward weaving around the swirling lights. 

It was a little while later when one of the sparks brushed against Gabriel’s leg and they found themselves in a scene where Sam was arguing with Dean when they were kids. They didn’t have time to really see what the argument was about before Gabriel was pulling them back out of it. “I see what you meant about not being able to avoid everything,” Sam said wryly. 

After what seemed like hours and quite a few more flashes of memory, Sam ran into one that he really really hadn’t wanted Gabriel to see. When they appeared in the memory, he and Ruby were deep in the throes of passion and he was pounding into her while steadily drinking blood from her arm. He froze for a moment before he realized they weren’t leaving, and he looked to Gabriel to see him frozen as well, a look of shocked horror on his face and Sam’s breath hitched and he tried to remember what Gabriel had done to get them out before. He grabbed Gabriel and pulled him away, but he pulled too hard and they found themselves in another memory which was both similar and different. He was kissing Ruby gently and telling her that he loved her. He pulled Gabriel away again, this time with a little less force and they found themselves back in the expanse. “Gabriel…I…”

“Forget it, Sam. It doesn’t matter,” Gabriel said shortly. 

“No, it does. I just…”

“We really shouldn’t be here any longer than we need to be,” Gabriel cut him off, still holding onto his hand as he pulled the hunter deeper into the mess. 

Sam bit his lip against the tears that welled up in his eyes. He knew that Gabriel wouldn’t hear anything he had to say right now, so he would drop it. At least until they were out of here. His blurred vision had him running into more sparks though, and they got pulled through quite a few more memories, nothing major though, until about the sixth one that showed him drinking gallons of demon blood in preparation for taking in Lucifer. Gabriel pulled him right back out, and snapped irritably, “Pull yourself together and be more careful, would you.”

Sam took a few deep breaths and tried to do just that. Thankfully it wasn’t long after that when Gabriel saw a dim spark and pulled them towards it. This one he reached out and grabbed, and they found themselves standing in one of Sam’s visions. Gabriel winced at how bad it was and felt his heart constricting at what Sam had endured, first when it happened and then getting the vision of it, but he shook himself out of it. He glanced over at Sam who had a pained look on his face, but he was holding it together, so Gabriel turned his attention to the memory itself. He let go of Sam’s hand for the first time, hoping the hunter would stay put and not go getting lost and making Gabriel search for him, as he walked around the edges of the vision, probing with his grace, looking for the thread that would lead back to the source. 

It took what seemed like at least half an hour before Gabriel’s eyes widened and he walked back to Sam and took his hand, bringing them out of his mind. When Sam woke up on the couch, he locked eyes with Gabriel and opened his mouth to say something about what they’d seen, but Gabriel cut him off. “It’s Luci. Not sure how he’s able to send you visions from the cage, but that’s where they’re coming from,” he said before he disappeared. He knew that if he’d stayed Sam would want to talk about it, and he just couldn’t deal with that right now. 

Sam blinked for a moment at the now empty chair and he forced himself to breathe. Gabriel would be back. He had to be. It said a lot that the main thought on his mind was Gabriel, and how he could possibly fix things, rather than the fact that Lucifer was in his head again. He hoped Gabriel would be back. Even if it was just to yell at him and tell him how disgusting he was. At least then he could try to say something…anything…to fix this. Just…please don’t let this be goodbye. He lost the battle with his tears at that thought. 

Gabriel didn’t return that evening, or by the time Sam went to bed and the hunter slept fitfully that night…the little bit he slept at all. He didn’t think he would ever forget the horror and disgust on Gabriel’s face as he watched him with Ruby. Even worse than that though, was the betrayal he saw in Gabriel’s eyes. The fact that Gabriel hadn’t ACTUALLY been betrayed didn’t mean that he didn’t feel that way, and that haunted Sam un-mercilessly. He would do anything to never see that look again. Well, not anything. Anything that meant still seeing Gabriel though. Sam woke the next morning with dark circles under his eyes and dried teartracks on his face. He made his way to the shower in a daze, hoping that things would look better when he got out and was more refreshed. 

 

When Gabriel left Sam, he made his way straight for hell. He didn’t think he could handle thinking about Sam and all that he’d seen right now, so he decided to do a little research on the big issue. How Luci was messing with Sam from the cage, and of course making sure he was still there where he was supposed to be. He’d had to smite a few demons along the way and if he imagined them with long dark hair, he doubted anyone would care. 

Once he got close to the cage, he could see the cracks and quickly cloaked himself before they sensed him. Drawing the attention of a few suicidal demons was one thing, but drawing the attention of his brothers was a whole different story and who knew how much they could sense through those cracks. After a thorough inspection where he found that none of them were large enough for them to escape through, nor were any of them in danger of widening more, he felt safe to go back to his apartment and sit down to consider the matter more fully.


	10. Chapter 10

It was a little after lunch, where Sam had to sit through the Spanish inquisition by his brother about his state of mind, before Gabriel appeared in the library. Only the fact that they were long used to picking up the subtle sound of wings, alerted him to Gabriel’s presence at all. Sam didn’t look up or acknowledge it though. He wasn’t sure what it meant, and had every intention of waiting until Gabriel said something, and he had no desire to see whatever pain or anger was swirling in his eyes. They were both silent for a long time before Gabriel sighed and said, “I’m sorry, Sam.”

Sam’s eyes did snap up to look at the archangel at that. “No, Gabriel. I…I’m sorry…I didn’t want…”

“I know,” Gabriel cut him off gently. “It’s not your fault. I…I knew that all that must have happened. I knew that Lilith’s agent was supposed to seduce you. I knew that you had been drinking demon blood. It’s just…knowing it and seeing it are two very different things. It just…knocked me way off kilter and I took it out on you, and I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have.”

“Well I shouldn’t have done those things to begin with,” Sam said, ashamed. 

“No. You shouldn’t have. But I made them about US and it shouldn’t have been. That was a long time before there was any us, despite how I felt for you at the time,” Gabriel said walking over and silently asking permission to sit, to which Sam nodded. 

“But it was horrible…disgusting…I’M…”

“No. YOU are not,” Gabriel interrupted. “Yes, THAT was, but like I said. It was a long time ago, and I already knew about it and forgave you for it years ago. It was just seeing it for myself…was a little too much. I shouldn’t have bailed on you like that, and I definitely shouldn’t have snapped at you.” 

“No, it’s okay, Gabriel. I get it. Really,” Sam told him. He knew that sometimes the only thing that could help was to get some space to think, and as nice as it would be to ask for that to be explained first, it wasn’t always feasible. Sam would be willing to wager that Gabriel didn’t even know what he was thinking and feeling until he managed to get his head on straight so it wasn’t like he could have told Sam. “Just…promise me you’ll always come back and talk to me about it once you’ve cooled down?” he asked hopefully. 

Gabriel smiled softly. “That I can do,” he promised reaching out a hand for the hunter who took it gratefully, and Gabriel raised Sam’s hand to his lips. 

They sat in comfortable silence for a few minutes, both just taking in the fact that they hadn’t lost this, before the conversation turned back to the important stuff. “You said something about Lucifer giving me the visions?” 

“Yeah, once I left you, I popped down to hell to do a little recon around the cage, and it’s damaged. Not enough for an escape, but apparently enough for him to mess with your head through. I could try to block it, but it wouldn’t be pleasant for either of us and would have lasting consequences so we should probably hold off on that unless it gets to be unbearable. I suggest just ignoring it for now,” Gabriel told him. 

“Yeah. Okay. That makes sense,” Sam said, not sure what Gabriel meant by unpleasant or lasting consequences, and not really sure if he wanted to know. If the situation came up, he would need to, of course, but for the time being, if Gabriel didn’t want to tell him, he wouldn’t push it. 

“Just make sure you let me know if it gets too bad and we can revisit the idea.”

“I will,” Sam told him. “Is there any way you could do anything to find out who put me in the time loop before? I can’t see any reason why Lucifer would do that.” 

“No. The mind is the only place that memory is stored so it’s the only place that would have any trace. I mean, there is a possibility that I could figure it out, but it would mean going back in and checking every memory to find the ones of you in that time loop and analyzing that, but it would be a slim chance even if we could find the right memories, which would not be fun or easy to find,” Gabriel told him. 

“Right. Yeah. Let’s not do that,” Sam said quickly paling a bit at the idea of venturing back into that madhouse.

“I do have a theory though. It’s kind of a crazy theory, but it’s the most legitimate theory I can think of,” Gabriel said hesitantly. 

“What’s that?” Sam asked carefully, not sure if he really wanted to know if it was something that Gabriel was stepping so carefully around. 

“You said that it was just a lazy day that you were repeating so you used the opportunity to learn what you could to try and stop Amara, and I was thinking, what if that was the entire purpose of it to begin with. With the cracks in the cage, Lucifer’s likely trying to lure you down there to affect a jailbreak, but Michael…if he’s still sane…would definitely not want Amara roaming free. Maybe he used the cracks himself to affect things and give you the time you needed.”

“You think? I mean, why would he care really? He wanted to destroy the world with the apocalypse anyway,” Sam told him. 

“True, and maybe he’s had a change of heart while he was down there, but I wouldn’t hold my breath for that. You have to understand though that with Amara free, it’s not just this world that’s in danger of being destroyed. It’s all the worlds, in all the universes, in all the dimensions. It’s everything in existence, including heaven, hell, and the cage,” Gabriel explained. 

“So, it’s what…self-preservation?” Sam asked as it started to make sense. 

“I’m sure that’s part of it, but Michael, despite how poorly he shows it, is beyond loyal to our father. Destroying this world eventually was part of his plan, but there are others who haven’t even begun to realize their potential. There is so much more out there beyond this world that our father created and Michael would want to protect that just as much as he would want to protect himself.”

Sam was a little offended that Michael would so easily write this world off while protecting others, but he knew he was more than a little biased on the subject, so he let it drop. “So, you think Michael was trying to help me as much as he could?”

“That’s my theory,” Gabriel said with a shrug. “It’s a lot more likely than a time travelling version of myself from the future that somehow managed to find a way to effect things in this time.”

“Wouldn’t he have been caught up in it too though? And I wouldn’t imagine that Lucifer would be very happy with him about it if he noticed,” Sam said, actually concerned for Michael and wasn’t that just insane. 

“It takes a lot more power for us to become a part of a temporal dimensional loop. More power than he likely would have been able to get out of those cracks. Believe me, Lucifer would definitely have noticed, but he only had to go through one day of torture. Not a year of it. Or more like not the same day for a year. Who knows how long Lucifer would have kept it up.” 

“Now I feel almost bad for leaving him down there,” Sam said with a wince. 

“Not bad enough to do anything about it, I hope,” Gabriel said warningly. 

“And risk letting Lucifer out too? Not to mention risk Michael picking up the apolcalypse plans again? No. Not THAT bad. But maybe bad enough to hope that your father pops up to help him at some point.”

Gabriel snorted. “I wouldn’t hold your breath on that one, kiddo.” As long as Sam wasn’t intending to go poking at the cage, that was all he really cared about. 

“So, about the whole looping me again idea…” Sam said hopefully. 

“We’ll wait until you get a good night’s sleep for that,” Gabriel told him with a light chuckle gesturing to the dark circles under his eyes.

“Yeah. Probably a good idea,” Sam said sheepishly. “I just couldn’t sleep last night. I was afraid…” Sam trailed off biting his lip. 

“I know,” Gabriel said softly squeezing the hunters hand reassuringly. “So was I, once I calmed down enough to realize what I’d done,” he admitted. 

“Nothing you said or did was anywhere near unforgivable.” It was Sam’s turn to reassure Gabriel. “You are allowed to have feelings, and feelings aren’t always logical or nice. Sometimes it’s better to take a step back and clear your head. Now that I know you’ll come back and talk to me about it when you can, it will be easier for me to take next time.”

Gabriel smiled and reached out a hand to cup Sam’s cheek. “I’ll always come back, Samshine,” he promised. 

Sam leaned into the touch before turning his head to press a kiss to the archangel’s palm. “Good.”


	11. Chapter 11

“So, did you want to hang out today?” Sam asked hopefully. 

Gabriel grinned. “Sure. You have anything specific in mind?” 

“Actually, I do,” Sam returned the grin and went to grab his coat before driving Gabriel to the pizzeria arcade he had considered last time. It wasn’t exactly a first date kind of place, but it was a great hang out kind of place, and he hoped that he would be able to relax a little more with Gabriel here rather than being a bundle of nerves. 

Gabriel let out a barking laugh as they pulled in and he saw where they were headed. “I do hope you’re okay with losing, Samsquatch,” Gabriel teased.

“Who says I’m gonna lose?” Sam joked back, and mentally patted himself on the back for the great idea. He could feel the nerves falling away already. Low pressure, high fun was just what they needed, as juvenile as it seemed on the surface. 

As soon as they entered and exchanged some money, Gabriel dragged Sam over to the Dance Dance Revolution game where he blew Sam out of the water. “Seems I’m gonna have to teach you how to dance one of these days, Sammykins.”

“I look forward to it,” Sam said with a chuckle, and he really did. Sam picked the next stop which happened to be a racing game. After Gabriel said that he wasn’t a fan of cars, he figured he might be able to win this one. He hadn’t been counting on archangel reflexes. It didn’t help that he could barely fit in the thing either. 

“Come on. Let’s go surfing!” Gabriel said excitedly grabbing Sam’s hand and pulling him towards the surfboards. Once again, Gabriel won. In fact, they stayed at the arcade for more than six hours, including dinner, and Sam didn’t win once. Unless he counted the second go around of dance dance revolution when his flailing arm knocked Gabriel off the platform and he won by default, of course. It didn’t matter though, because he couldn’t remember the last time he had so much fun. Gabriel was very good at doing just the right amount of ribbing to make it amusing, without crossing the line into making Sam feel bad. 

When they got back to the bunker, Sam asked, “Want to watch a movie or something before you go?” 

“Sure,” Gabriel said with a grin, grabbing Sam’s hand as they headed into the bunker. Dean was already out at the bar, so they had the place to themselves for the moment and Sam put his arm around Gabriel, pressing a quick kiss to his lips as the archangel curled up to his side when they put on the movie. 

Sam was so tired after his sleepless night that he was yawning by the end of the movie and Gabriel smiled fondly at him. “You should get some sleep.”

“Yeah. That’s probably a good idea,” Sam said sheepishly as he leaned forward and kissed Gabriel with far less nerves this time. Gabriel immediately deepened the kiss and they both seemed to get lost in it. When they broke for air, Sam’s lips moved down Gabriel’s jaw and to his neck and Gabriel’s breath hitched as he tilted his head to the side to give Sam a better angle and things started getting more heated. It wasn’t until Sam’s hand slid up under Gabriel’s shirt, rubbing low on his side, just above his waistband that he snapped out of it, and pulled back.

“I should go,” Gabriel told him. Before I can’t, he added only in his head. 

“Yeah. You probably should,” Sam said breathlessly kissing him deeply again and they nearly got lost in it again, but this time Sam came to his senses first. “Goodnight, Gabriel,” he whispered, with one more short chaste kiss to the archangel’s lips. 

“Goodnight, Sam,” Gabriel whispered back before he disappeared. 

Gabriel had left just in time too, because not two minutes later, Sam heard the door open and Dean walked in, stopping short when he saw Sam before snorting amusedly and plopping down in the chair next to him, not wanting to consider what Sam had just been doing on the couch if the state of his hair and clothes were any indication. That brought to mind something that Sam wanted to say to him. “Hey, Dean. Can you do me a favor tomorrow?” 

“What?” Dean asked cautiously. 

“In the morning, can you just…not say anything annoying or play any music, or anything like that?”

“Why?” Dean asked confused. 

“Well, Gabriel is going to put me in a time loop again to give me time to research what we can do about Amara, and the same thing every day for god only knows how long gets really old really fast you know?”

“You’re actually letting him put you in another groundhog day?” Dean asked incredulously. 

“Yeah. This time without you dying or anyone dying really, or anything bad happening. Just a normal boring day so I can research,” Sam told him. 

Dean rolled his eyes. “I’m not going to be reliving the same day over and over too am I?”

“Not unless you actually plan on helping with research for once,” Sam scoffed. Dean scrunched up his nose at the thought. “So yeah. It’ll just be me and Gabriel looping.”

“Have fun with that,” Dean said rolling his eyes. 

“Just remember…”

“Don’t be annoying and no music. I got it.”

 

When Sam woke up the next morning after a good night’s sleep, he prayed for Gabriel to let him know. He wasn’t expecting to see him so early, and he wasn’t wrong. Unfortunately, Dean didn’t exactly follow his instructions as he walked into the kitchen for breakfast and the first thing out of his mouth was, “Morning Sammy. You looping yet? How many days you on so far?” Sam let his head fall to the table with a groan. “What?” Dean asked innocently. 

“Do you have any idea how annoying that question will be after the first hundred times or so?” Sam asked wearily. 

“Oh. Right. Didn’t think of that,” Dean said with a shrug. “Sorry.” Sam resisted the urge to throw his bagel at him. He sure sounded sorry. 

Dean had decided to have a lazy day today too since nothing he did would matter tomorrow. Well, until the last time through anyway, but since he didn’t have anything that actually needed to be done today, there was little point, so after breakfast, he headed back to his room to listen to some music where Sam couldn’t hear it and be annoyed by it, while Sam headed to the library. 

Gabriel showed up around lunchtime bearing food, and sat down to eat with them. Since he was looping too, he could make sure not to bring the same thing every day. After lunch, he followed Sam back to the library while Dean went to watch tv. “So I was thinking that while we’re doing this, I could come and tutor you in the afternoons.”

“Really? That would be great,” Sam said happily. Tutoring from an actual archangel would definitely speed up the process. 

Gabriel had one more bomb to drop though. “The only catch is at least one day out of every seven we spend doing something crazy and fun.”

“Define crazy,” Sam said suspiciously. He wasn’t so sure he wanted to agree to anything Gabriel found crazy. 

“Something that you would never do if there were any consequences. Remember, anything you do today will just be erased when you wake up again so there are no limits. Hell, even if you get yourself killed, you’ll just wake up this morning again. You even wondered if you could pull off robbing a bank? Let’s give it a shot. You can kill someone who’s pissed you off, go bungee jumping, skydiving, scuba diving, whatever you want. We take one day a ‘week’ off, and you’ll have my undivided attention to our studies between lunch and dinner every other day,” Gabriel bargained. He wanted to get Sam to loosen up a bit and this was the perfect opportunity. 

“I don’t know about killing anyone, even if it wouldn’t take, but I can think about the rest,” Sam told him. “I can promise to take one day a week off to do something fun though, and will accept your input on the activity.”

“Good enough,” Gabriel told him. They would have plenty of time for him to loosen the hunter up and get him to start thinking about the other things more seriously. He had never actually expected him to go for killing people who pissed him off. He just said that to emphasize the whole lack of limits. Gabriel even had a great idea of a fun prank to start Sam off small on their first day off, but that was to think about another time. He still had to live up to his end of the bargain. “Okay first things first. You said you’ve primarily been studying magical theory?” Sam nodded. “Okay, so I’m gonna go ahead and quiz you and see where you’re at and what kind of holes you have in your knowledge, so I know where we need to start.”

“Sounds good. Fire away,” Sam told him and the remainder of the afternoon was spent in a rapid fire question and answer session that had Sam’s head hurting about thirty minutes in. 

When dinner time came around, Gabriel said, “Okay so you’re farther than I expected but you still have some major holes. Not surprising since you’re working from patchwork human knowledge, of course, but we have a lot of work to do starting tomorrow.”


	12. Chapter 12

After dinner, Sam and Gabriel curled up on the couch together to watch movies and talk…and make out quite a bit. Gabriel kept pulling back when it started to go too far though. He still wasn’t ready to let go all the way. Not until he had more of a commitment from Sam than an ‘I want to see where this goes’. It would be hard enough to lose this after getting this close, but to have it all and then lose it would kill him. Sam was both glad and frustrated that Gabriel kept pulling back. He wasn’t sure he was ready to go much farther himself. Not with a guy. It was still too new. That didn’t stop him from WANTING more though. 

Sam quickly learned in the afternoons that Gabriel was a harsh taskmaster. He had some idea of that fact after the brutal pop quiz he got the first day, but it just got harder from there. He wasn’t mean about it or anything, thankfully, and he still did manage to make it interesting, but he had very high expectations. The few times Sam had to ask him to slow down, Sam could see a hint of disappointment in Gabriel’s features before he hid it again, so Sam did his best to keep up. He had always considered himself to be smart. He had gotten a full scholarship to Stanford, a near perfect score on his L-Sats, and had always picked things up faster than anyone else, but he was really starting to feel stupid. It was five days before he finally had enough and blew up. He’d had to ask Gabriel to slow down again and the archangel sighed heavily before backtracking. “Damnit Gabriel. I’m doing my best here,” Sam snapped. 

Gabriel looked taken aback at the outburst for a moment and blinked at him before getting up and pacing running a hand through his hair, forcing himself not to respond in kind. Once he took a few deep breaths he turned back to Sam. “You’re right, Sam. I’m sorry. I’m not used to teaching humans. Human minds are far more limited than angels or pagans and I guess I just forgot that for a while. I’ll try to go at a more human pace.”

“I’m not that limited,” Sam grumbled. 

Gabriel rolled his eyes. “Compared to angels you are. I can do multidimensional calculations in my head in seconds. The human brain just isn’t built with that sort of capability. It might take a little trial and error for me to get this right, just…try and be patient with me?”

Sam took a deep breath and calmed himself too. “Yeah. Okay. I’m sorry I snapped at you.” 

“I think we should call it for the day,” Gabriel said looking at the clock and seeing that they only had another hour left anyway. “And tomorrow will be our fun day. It’ll give me some time to figure out how to modify my methods.”

“That sounds like a good idea,” Sam told him, holding out his hand and pulling Gabriel into his lap when he took it. “We’ll figure all this out,” he promised. Sometimes it seemed like they were constantly having these little issues like this. “It’s just growing pains is all. We’ll get better.” 

“I hope so,” Gabriel said laying his head on Sam’s shoulder as the hunter’s arms closed tightly around him. He didn’t particularly like conflict, but he could see the wisdom in Sam’s words. Most of their issues so far would never have come up if they were more used to dealing with each other, so they would hopefully iron themselves out in time. 

“Anything worth having is worth working for,” Sam said pressing a kiss to Gabriel’s head. 

“Until it becomes not worth it anymore,” Gabriel pointed out worriedly. 

“And this is not even close to that level,” Sam assured him. “It’s not even in the same dimension.”

Gabriel relaxed a fraction at that. “Good,” he said with a relieved sigh as he snuggled deeper in Sam’s arms. He couldn’t help the warmth that spread in him at the idea that Sam thought he was worth fighting for. He thought that THIS was worth fighting for, and that was all that really mattered right now. He knew that he would fight for this until his last breath, no matter how difficult things got, and it was nice to know that Sam would fight too, even if not as hard. 

They spent the remainder of the time until dinner, just cuddled up together, neither speaking, but it was a comfortable silence. They were both lost in thought, both about the state of things between them and the lessons that were going so poorly and how to fix them. More than anything though, they were just enjoying each other’s presence. They ended up in nearly the same position on the couch after dinner. Most nights of this loop Dean had gone out to a bar, though the three of them had hung around the bunker once before. 

The next morning, Gabriel showed up around nine AM. “Okay Samsquatch, you ready for our fun day?” he asked with a smirk. 

“Oh crap…what did you have in mind?” Sam asked warily. 

“I figured we’d start off easy, go down to the high school and pants all the teachers in front of their classes,” Gabriel said with a grin. 

“Gabriel! We can’t do that! They’re just kids. They’ll be traumatized and the poor teachers…”

“Remember Sam-a-lam. We’re looping. No one will remember this tomorrow except for us, and we can get the full amusement factor out of it,” Gabriel pointed out. 

“Can I come?” Dean asked hopefully. 

At the same time Sam asked, “And how are we supposed to do that without being seen?” 

“I can make us invisible to anyone else of course,” Gabriel said rolling his eyes before he turned to Dean and answered his question. “I’m good with it if Sam is.”

“Come on, Sammy. It’ll be fun and no one will ever know,” Dean cajoled him. 

“Okay fine. But if this goes bad I’ll kill you both,” Sam said defeated. 

“Whatever you say, Sammykins,” Gabriel said placatingly, patting the hunters arm before he grabbed both hunter’s shoulders and they appeared in the local high school. “Okay let’s split up. Sammy you take that hall, Dean you take that one, I’ll take this one, and then we’ll head upstairs and do the same,” He directed. Just before they split up, though Gabriel said, “Oh and Sammy? I’ll know if you don’t do it.”

“I’ll do it, I’ll do it,” Sam grumbled as he headed down his hallway. He did skip the first room though because it was a female teacher in a dress, but he slipped in the door of the next room, confusing the teacher who walked over to close the door again after it seemed to open on its own. He was almost back to his desk when Sam grabbed his pants and yanked before making a run for the door as raucous laughter rang out behind him. He did turn back once he was out the door to see the teacher rushing to pull his pants up as the students laughed at him. He started to feel bad for the teacher, but reminded himself that no one would remember this later, not even him. And all the teachers would be in it together at least. He refused to admit that he might just be having fun as he moved to the class across the hall. 

This time the teacher seemed like a real piece of work. Snapping at students and insulting them. Sam even let out a little giggle this time when he pantsed the jerk. That giggle turned to full on laughter when he saw the neon pink boxers the guy was wearing with bright red lip prints on them. It took a few minutes before he was able to pull himself together enough to leave the room and move on. He continued down the hallway the same way. He skipped two more female teachers, and one guy who looked so timid, Sam was worried that he would have an aneurism. 

Sam didn’t realize that Gabriel was following him, doing his hallway by snap. The whole point of this was to get Sam to loosen up after all. Gabriel could come pants teachers anytime. Time loop or not. Sam needed to cut loose and Gabriel was going to make sure that he did. Gabriel had no issues with Sam skipping the women, and that one guy, Gabriel might have skipped too, but he seemed to be getting into it, so Gabriel considered it a job well done. So well, that he actually did split up from Sam upstairs and did his own hallway himself. 

They met back up in the entrance hall half an hour later, all three laughing uproariously, and Gabriel snapped them back to the bunker. “That was great!” Dean told him. “The looks on their faces…”

“It was pretty fun,” Sam said with an enthusiastic grin on his face. 

“See? I told you. You just need to cut loose sometimes. And you know the best part?” Gabriel asked. 

“What’s that?” Dean asked bouncing like a kid on a sugar high. 

“They are most likely going to call an assembly for this afternoon to discuss the issue once it gets around that it happened to most everyone. Even more opportunities to play.”

“We’re gonna pants them in front of the whole school?” Sam asked wide-eyed, not so sure about that one. 

“Nah. No need to play the same trick twice. I was thinking we put dirty pictures on the projector,” Gabriel told him. 

That one Sam was a little more on board with. This whole thing was juvenile, but Gabriel might have a point about cutting loose every once in a while. He hadn’t felt so free in…well…ever.


	13. Chapter 13

“In the meantime, I’m gonna steal Sammy here away for a little while,” Gabriel said looking at Sam questioningly and the hunter just rolled his eyes and nodded. Leave it to Gabriel to declare his intent and THEN ask. 

Gabriel took Sam’s hand and they disappeared and Sam stumbled a bit on landing, partially because he had different shoes on. He looked down and realize he had whole different clothes. He was wearing a tux…and so was Gabriel. “Um…Gabriel…what are we doing?” Sam asked curiously. 

“You’ll see. It’s a surprise,” Gabriel said with a grin that he made sure didn’t betray his nerves. He and Sam had been having fun and all, but this was quite a step up from their usual dates, and he hoped it went over well. 

Gabriel kept hold of Sam’s hand while they walked down the street, and Sam was so taken with the sight of Gabriel in a tux that he could be forgiven for the fact that it took him a moment to realize that he couldn’t understand what anyone was saying and then he started to look around to see where they were. When he noticed the Eiffel Tower his jaw dropped. “We’re in Paris?!” 

“Yup,” Gabriel said with a grin. 

“Are we gonna see the Eiffel Tower while we’re here?” he asked excitedly. 

“You’re not gonna let me just surprise you, are you,” Gabriel asked wryly. 

Sam chuckled a bit. “Okay. Fine. You can surprise me. As long as the Eiffel Tower is part of that surprise.”

“Deal,” Gabriel said with his own chuckle as he pulled Sam down another street. 

Sam’s eyes went wide as he saw the building they were walking up to. It looked almost like a castle. It was huge and opulent, but he had no idea what it was. There was no sign anywhere. Gabriel showed something to the doorman that Sam didn’t catch, and the doorman said, “Bienvenue à l'Opéra de Paris.” 

“Je vous remercie,” Gabriel replied easily as he and Sam stepped inside. 

“Gabriel,” Sam whispered. “Is this the Paris Opera House?” Gabriel didn’t get a chance to answer before someone stepped forward to hand them a program and Gabriel handed over his tickets, and someone else stepped forward to lead them to their seats. “Les Mis? We’re actually seeing Les Mis in the Paris Opera House?” Sam whispered in awe. Gabriel just grinned at him in response, and Sam got the hint that conversation should wait. 

Sam wasn’t sure why he was surprised that they were led to a private box. It all seemed so extravagant. It made him feel rather…important. Once they were seated, Gabriel turned to Sam and some measure of his masks fell away, now that they were alone. “So, do you like it? Is it a good surprise?” he asked biting his lip with a hopeful look in his eyes. 

“This is amazing, Gabriel. I…I’ve never been anywhere like this before,” Sam said still looking around in awe. 

“I know,” Gabriel said, smile widening as he motioned for Sam to sit down on the provided loveseat. “I hoped it would be a nice change.”

“It is. I just…you…you’re incredible, you know that?” 

Gabriel chuckled a bit and puffed up his chest, buffing his nails on his jacket. “Why, yes, I do actually,” he joked. 

“I’m serious. You go from running around a high school pantsing teachers and giggling like a teenage girl to the picture of calm sophistication in like a second flat,” Sam pointed out. 

“I am many things Sam. Yes, I’m a prankster, but I’m also a lot more than that too.”

“I know,” Sam told him. “I’ve always known that. Well ever since I found out who you were, that is. It’s just seeing such a rapid switch really brings the idea home, you know?” 

Gabriel gave Sam a knowing smirk. That was exactly what he had intended. Well, that and showing Sam that he could give him the world. The lights started to go down and a voice rang through the theatre and Gabriel slid up next to Sam, putting his arm around the hunter and resting his chin on Sam’s shoulder as he started whispering the lines in the hunter’s ear, translating it from French. 

Sam watched the show transfixed. He didn’t catch as much of it as he wanted though. He was very distracted by Gabriel’s hypnotic voice and the breath ghosting over his ear. It was sexy as hell, and Sam was having trouble concentrating on the show. Not that he was complaining at all. He barely even noticed that his hand had moved to Gabriel’s leg and he was tracing his fingers up and down the archangel’s thigh. He definitely noticed Gabriel’s voice getting lower and his breaths coming faster though and he cut his eyes to the side to see the very obvious bulge in the archangel’s pants. Tuxedo pants didn’t hide much when it came to that. He knew he’d been hard since right about the time Gabriel started whispering in his ear like that, and he was glad to see that he could affect Gabriel just as much as Gabriel did him. Some part of him had been wondering with the way that Gabriel always pulled away when things started to move forward between them. 

Sam moved his hand up a bit. Still not touching. He wasn’t really comfortably going that far here, but definitely teasing. It was only fair with as much as Gabriel was teasing him, whether it was intentional or not. He ran his fingers lightly up and down the inside of Gabriel’s inner thigh and he heard the archangel’s breath hitch, but he didn’t miss a beat in his recitation. Even when he started nibbling on Sam’s ear and neck, he still translated every word as his free hand trailed over Sam’s chest and stomach. 

Gabriel had noticed Sam get hard right at the beginning, and he couldn’t help his smirk at the fact that just his voice affected the hunter so much. He was very carefully keeping his own reaction under control, and doing a pretty good job of it too, until Sam’s fingers started gliding over his thigh. Only the fact that he was paying Sam so much attention had him seeing Sam glance over and see his own predicament, and Gabriel considered moving away, but he honestly wasn’t sure if he wanted to this time. When Sam’s hand moved up higher, Gabriel lost the ability to breathe for a second, but Sam wasn’t touching. He was being a little tease. That was okay. Two could play at that game. Gabriel started running his hand lightly over Sam’s chest and stomach, always stopping around the belly button before coming back up, even as he kept reading the lines in Sam’s ear like it was the most natural thing in the world. 

By the time they announced intermission, Gabriel was wondering if he was going to cum in his pants without even being touched. He couldn’t believe how close he was, and judging by the way Sam was breathing he was in pretty much the same boat. As soon as the stage lights went down, Sam turned and attacked Gabriel’s lips hungrily before moving on to the archangel’s neck. “Oh…fuck…Gabriel,” he moaned, and that was the last straw for Gabriel’s control. He waved a hand to close the curtains at the front of the box and shifted to the side so that Sam’s hand that was resting on his upper thigh was now on his dick, and he let out a choked moan. 

For a second he wondered if Sam was going to pull back, but then he started rubbing Gabriel roughly through his pants. “God…yes…Sam,” Gabriel gasped as he moved his own hand down to Sam’s straining erection. “Shit, I’m close,” he breathed out quickly followed by a whimper as Sam’s teeth bit down on his neck and he sucked hard, rubbing Gabriel faster, and Gabriel returned the favor letting his head fall back against the loveseat as he felt the coiling in his stomach that told him he was about to blow. He bit his lip to keep from crying out as he felt his release washing over him and started rubbing Sam faster and harder. He knew by the way the hunter was nearly trembling that he was close and Gabriel turned and started nibbling on Sam’s neck. “Cum, for me Sammy,” he whispered huskily, letting his breath ghost over Sam’s ear as he sucked the lobe in his mouth and Sam gave a whimpering moan as he blew. 

Gabriel snapped his fingers and cleaned them both up, even as Sam turned his head back and kissed Gabriel, soft and sweet and slow. Gabriel tangled his fingers in Sam’s hair as he melted into the kiss and fell even deeper. Before he could say anything he would regret, the lights went back down and the voices were ringing through the auditorium again. Gabriel waved a hand to open the curtains and they resumed their previous position. Just without all the teasing this time.


	14. Chapter 14

Once the show was over, Gabriel turned to Sam. “It’s about two and a half miles to our next stop. Do you feel up to walking it or do you want me to fly us closer?” 

“Depends. Is there food at our next stop?” Sam asked. 

Gabriel laughed. “Yeah. We’re going to eat there.”

“Then I’m good to walk it. I would like to see more of the city. As long as I’m getting fed after,” Sam joked. As they walked out in the streets, Sam looked around and took in the hustle and bustle of Paris at lunchtime. He threw an arm over Gabriel’s shoulder, wanting to be closer to him than just holding his hand and Gabriel apparently liked that idea since he wrapped his arm around Sam’s waist and plastered himself to the hunter’s side. 

As they got closer, Sam saw where they were going and he grinned. He wasn’t sure where the food would be, but at least he was going to get to see the Eiffel Tower. It wasn’t until they reached the top that he realized that there was a restaurant up there. A very fancy restraurant, and Gabriel conversed in rapid French with the host before they were led to a table with an amazing view. “This is amazing,” Sam said in awe as he looked out over the city.

Gabriel grinned. “I made sure to reserve us the best table in the place.”

“When did you do all this?” 

“Yesterday, a week ago,” Gabriel told him. “I knew we would be looping today and I always had this in mind for us to do on one of the loops.”

“And you were able to get reservations like this a day in advance?” Sam asked surprised. 

“Only because I’m an archangel,” Gabriel said with a smirk and Sam took that to mean he had used his powers to grease the wheels. As long as no one was hurt, Sam didn’t care though, and he knew Gabriel well enough to know that he wouldn’t hurt anyone for something like this, and on the off chance that he did, it would have been someone he would have gotten anyway and they would have deserved it. 

Dinner was spent with comfortable conversation as Gabriel pointed out some of the landmarks of the city that they could see, and he even told quite a few funny stories about them or things that had happened near them. Once their meal was finished, Gabriel held out his hand and asked hopefully, “Dance with me?”

Sam goggled at him for a moment. “Are you crazy? Are you forgetting the dance dance revolution disaster?” 

Gabriel laughed heartily. “Like I could forget. If I was human you would have broken my nose.” Sam laughed along with him. He was over any residual embarrassment from the issue. “This is different though. You don’t have to do anything but relax and follow my lead.”

“I don’t know…” Sam said nervously. 

“Please?” Gabriel asked, giving Sam his best puppy dog eyes. 

Sam looked at him for a moment, biting his lip before he said, “Okay,” and took Gabriel’s offered hand and let the archangel lead him to the dance floor. 

Gabriel positioned Sam’s hands where they needed to be and started dancing. Or tried to anyway. Sam was so tense, it was basically just Gabriel jerking him around. Gabriel stopped after a few steps with a chuckle. “Just relax Sam, and let me lead,” he told him encouragingly. Sam took a deep breath and tried to do so, and before long they were turning around the floor. Not particularly gracefully, given Sam’s awkwardness and unfamiliarity with the process, but he only stepped on Gabriel’s feet a few times so he counted it as a win, and he couldn’t deny how nice it felt to be in Gabriel’s arms like this. He might be able to get used to this whole dancing thing with a little practice. 

They danced a few songs before their dessert arrived and they sat down to eat it. Sam immediately fell in love with the crème brulee, though he did let Gabriel feed him a bite of his chocolate eclairs before the archangel leaned forward and kissed him, licking the remaining chocolate from the side of his lip in the process. 

By the time they were leaving, Gabriel looked at his watch. “So, I kinda lost track of time and we missed the assembly at the school. I can take us back an hour or we can hit it another day. It’s up to you,” he told the hunter. He didn’t want to push his luck by insisting. 

“We can do it another day,” Sam told him. “Maybe we could walk around the city a little more?” he asked hopefully. 

“Whatever you want, Samshine,” Gabriel said with a pleased smile. This was one of his favorite cities and being able to share it with Sam was like a dream come true. He knew exactly where to take Sam next. He led the hunter over the Pont d’lena and they turned right to walk along the waterfront of the Seine. It was not only beautiful and scenic, but it was the quickest way to The Louvre. They spent the remainder of the afternoon touring the famous museum before Gabriel led Sam to Le Fumoir for dinner and then they headed back to the bunker. 

Sam plopped on the couch pulling Gabriel down with him and nuzzling against the archangel’s neck. “As amazing as today was, it was also exhausting,” he said tiredly. 

Gabriel chuckled a bit as he turned to kiss Sam sweetly. “I’ll let you get some sleep then.”

Sam tightened his arms around Gabriel. “Uh-uh. Not yet. Just sit with me for a while?” he asked hopefully, resting his head on Gabriel’s shoulder. 

Gabriel smiled contentedly as he leaned his head against Sam’s. Like he could say no. “Sure, Sammy.”

It didn’t take long before Sam was drifting off to sleep on Gabriel’s shoulder and when Gabriel heard a groggy, “Love you, Gabe,” his breath hitched and his eyes went wide. He turned to look at Sam, but the hunter was deeply asleep. Gabriel closed his eyes and just breathed in the moment for a good long while before he snapped his fingers, sending Sam to his bed and going to his own apartment where he plopped down on the couch in a daze. Had he meant it? Did he even realize it yet if he did, or was it just his subconscious making the connection that he hadn’t consciously made yet? Was it just the high coming off the romantic day? Did it change anything? 

Gabriel had still barely stirred by the time morning came, but he had come to the conclusion that no, it didn’t change anything. Not yet. There was plenty of time for Sam to run still. There was no telling how he would react when and if he realized what he was feeling. If that was even what he was feeling at all and not just a crazy dream. If Gabriel had even heard him correctly. The words were rather slurred after all, and Gabriel may have just heard what he wanted to hear. No. He wouldn’t act on it until Sam said the words consciously. He still couldn’t let himself fall until he knew that Sam would be there to catch him. Consciously and willingly. Well, fall all the way that is. He was already pretty deep. Deeper than he was comfortable with really, but that wasn’t to be helped. He wasn’t about to throw away the opportunity he’d been given to have everything he ever dreamed of. He just hoped it didn’t come back to bite him in the ass later.

He went through his morning in an amazing mood though, despite his worry. Between the perfect day yesterday and the way Sam just fell asleep on him, apparently comfortable enough with him to do so, it made him feel more hopeful than he ever had before. The falling asleep on him alone was enough to do that. He knew better than most how difficult it was for any hunter to sleep near someone they didn’t trust implicitly, much less a hunter named Winchester. Being the recipient of that much trust was a special thing, and definitely a step in the right direction. Following the amazing day spent in Paris, he was on cloud nine.


	15. Chapter 15

When Gabriel showed up for lunch, he had a whole new approach to their lessons ready to go. He showed up with books, charts, graphs, and other visual aids, that he had spent most of the morning making and collecting. Now that he had them made though and had a firm vision in his mind, he could just snap them back into existence again. He had put the charts and graphs into a thick binder and he would enlarge them when they were working with them. Sam’s jaw dropped as he flipped through the binder while Gabriel bit his lip nervously waiting for a reaction. After a minute he couldn’t help but ask, “So, what do you think? Will it help?” 

“Yeah. This is perfect. Thanks, Gabe,” Sam said looking up at the archangel with a grin. 

Gabriel let out a sigh of relief. “I started with ingredients and their reactions since that’s where you were struggling before, but if there’s anything else we’ve gone over that you’re less comfortable with I can make up something for them too,” he offered. 

“Well having a chart with the immutable laws would be nice,” Sam suggested as he considered the other things they had gone over. “Maybe something for the metals and their uses?” That was really all they had gone over in the five days they’d been at it. 

“Consider it done. I’ll work on that tonight and tomorrow morning,” Gabriel promised. “I figure I can just pop them over here once the day resets every day for you to study at your leisure in the morning, and we can go over them in the afternoons, and you just tell me when you’re ready to move on. Sound good?” 

“Sounds great,” Sam said cheerfully. This boded well for things going better in the future, and said a lot about Gabriel’s commitment to these lessons. He had mentioned making the charts rather than just snapping them up, and that spoke to a great deal of effort. “You won’t have to remake them every day, will you?” Sam asked. 

“Nah. Now that I’ve made them once and have a good picture of them in my mind, I can just snap them up as they are now,” Gabriel told him. It would be a nightmare if he had to put them back together every day. “I’ll just have to manually create any new ones.”

“Oh. That’s not so bad. And I can keep them once we’re out of the loop too?” Sam asked hopefully. 

 

“Of course,” Gabriel told him. “So let’s get back to the ingredients and their reactions. We’ll just work with the standard, most common ingredients for right now. We’ll get to the rest when we go more in-depth. Notice that the uses and reactions are different when they are in different forms like powdered and extracts…” 

What followed was no less grueling than it had been before, but with the visual aids and Gabriel pointing out whatever he was talking about, Sam followed it much easier than before when it was just Gabriel lecturing. Gabriel stopped after a couple hours to ask if he was still going too fast and Sam gave him a warm smile for asking, and said he was good, so Gabriel kept going. Dean had decided to hang around the bunker this time around after asking when the last time he did was. He didn’t want to crowd the couple, but didn’t want to completely abandon his brother during the loop either. Even if he wouldn’t remember it, Sam would. 

With Dean there, Sam and Gabriel still curled up together on the couch, but they kept the kissing to a minimum and kept their hands to themselves. The conversation flowed between the three of them Gabriel was glad that he was getting a chance to know Dean better, even if he would have to start all over from Dean’s side once they were out of here. It still wasn’t worth driving the other hunter insane to remember all this though. Once Dean went to bed, Gabriel said a lingering goodnight to Sam, not letting things go as far as they had at the opera house yesterday, though before he left. It was one thing to allow it when they were already so close and they wouldn’t get a chance to go farther, but if he allowed it as a matter of course it would be far too easy to go much too far. 

The next day went much the same, except Dean went out to the bar that night, so he and Sam spent the evening alone. Gabriel couldn’t get Sam’s sleepy words from the other night out of his head now that they were alone either. He wished so much that he could hear them intentionally from the hunter, but he wasn’t about to bring it up. He had steadfastly avoided all mention of feelings, waiting until Sam was ready to go there. If he pushed too hard, he might lose him, and he wasn’t taking that chance. Not to mention he hated the idea of putting himself out there without knowing if he would be getting anything back. It was bad enough that Sam knew everything. Actually, talking about it with him would be torture. 

There was no mention of the subject that night though. Or at all for a few weeks. They’d had a couple more off days since then. He’d talked Sam into bungee jumping for one of them, and the other one, they snuck into an office building and glued all the drawers of the desks and filing cabinets shut. That was how they spent their mornings. For lunch and in the afternoons, they had dates. Neither as over the top as their day in Paris, but still nice nonetheless. In the evenings they joined Dean at the bar to hang out…well until he left with his flavor of the night that was. A few evenings a week, Gabriel and Sam practiced dancing, and Sam was really starting to love it. 

It was a little over two weeks after their Paris date when it happened. They were on the couch with a movie playing in the background and making out heavily. Gabriel was nearly laying down with Sam leaning over top of him, sucking on his neck and the hunter breathed out a quiet, “I love you, Gabriel.”

Gabriel froze and pushed Sam away, sitting up. He couldn’t just take a heat of the moment confession like that at face value. At the hurt look on Sam’s face, he said, “I’m sorry, Sam. I just…I know things can just pop out at times like that but just…please…don’t say that unless you mean it.” He thought that Sam had meant it, but he had to be sure. He needed Sam to say that he meant it when they weren’t lost in the moment. 

Sam took a deep breath looking for courage. “I…I did mean it, Gabriel. I…I love you,” he said nervously, biting his lip so hard it nearly bled. He didn’t have much time to be nervous though before he had a lap full of archangel, kissing him desperately. 

“I love you, Sam,” Gabriel whispered as he came up for air, and Sam’s arms tightened around him as he kissed him again. It didn’t take long at all for their erections to be back and more noticeable than ever given the way Gabriel was in Sam’s lap. Gabriel shifted so that he was straddling the hunter and one of Sam’s hands tangled in Gabriel’s hair while the other moved down to his ass to pull him tighter against him and get some friction against his straining cock. 

Gabriel moaned into Sam’s mouth, but saw no point in stopping him this time. He knew that Sam had never been with a man before and they probably wouldn’t be having sex tonight as a result, but he would let Sam take this as far as he wanted to. He was done holding back. Sam loved him. Sam would catch him when he fell. That was all that mattered anymore.


	16. Chapter 16

The next day, Gabriel showed up at lunch time and pulled Sam into a deep kiss. “Love you, Sammy,” he said happily, over the moon that he could finally say that. 

“I love you too, Gabriel,” Sam said with a goofy grin on his face as they headed to the kitchen to join Dean for lunch. After their lesson, while they were having dinner just the two of them, Dean having gone out, Sam asked more than a little nervously, “Do you…maybe…wanna hang out…in my room tonight?” He had no intention of sleeping with the archangel. He wasn’t ready for that yet, but he did want to explore more than he was comfortable with doing on the couch when Dean could conceivably come back at any time. He had been thinking as he laid in bed last night and he had realized what Gabriel was waiting for to get their physical relationship kickstarted. 

“Sure thing, Sammykins,” Gabriel said with a grin. 

Sam thought maybe he should be a little clearer, so he said, “I mean…I’m not ready for…you know…but maybe…”

“It’s all good, Samshine. I’m not pushing anything or expecting anything. You set the pace here, kiddo,” Gabriel assured him. 

When they got to Sam’s room, the hunter sat down on the edge of the bed, and Gabriel followed suit, pulling Sam into a deep kiss to try to get him to relax a little bit, and it worked. It didn’t take long before they were lying down on the bed, Gabriel on his back and Sam leaning over him, trailing his hand over Gabriel’s chest and stomach tracing the muscles he could feel under the archangel’s shirt as he alternated between kissing Gabriel’s lips and his neck. 

Gabriel was beyond turned on just being in bed with Sam, even without his lips and hand everywhere, but he made sure not to push anything as his own hands wandered over Sam’s back and through his hair and over his face and shoulders. After a little while, he felt Sam’s hand working the buttons on his shirt and once it was unbuttoned, Gabriel sat up enough to strip it off his shoulders, giving Sam plenty of soft skin to explore, and explore he did. And not just with his hand. His lips trailed over Gabriel’s shoulders and across his collarbones as a thumb flicked one of the archangel’s nipples and Gabriel sucked in a sharp breath, trying to keep his breathing under control. 

Sam’s hand hesitated at Gabriel’s waistband and he looked up nervously at Gabriel who gave him the calmest smile he could manage at the moment and said, “Whatever you want, Samshine.” Sam hesitated a moment more before moving his hand down tentatively over the bulge in Gabriel’s pants and Gabriel couldn’t help a slight moan. Sam wasn’t sure why he was so nervous about this. It was no different than what they’d done in the opera house. Except it was. This was in Sam’s bed. This was essentially premeditated instead of just a desperate grope when they were already so close to the edge. He was thinking about it this time. Actually paying attention. 

Gabriel wanted to touch Sam too, but with Sam’s lips trailing over his chest now, he couldn’t get to him to do so, but he could feel the hunter’s erection straining against his leg. As Sam’s breath ghosted over his nipple Gabriel couldn’t help but nudge his head a bit with the hand that was tangled in his hair, and Sam took the hint and wrapped his lips around Gabriel’s nipple and sucked it hard into his mouth and Gabriel let out a whimpering moan as Sam’s hand started moving more confidently over Gabriel’s cock and Gabriel was rapidly losing control. “Mmm. T-take it out, Sammy? Please?” he whispered. He needed to feel Sam’s hand wrapped around him. Stroking him. Not to mention his pants were more than a little uncomfortably tight by now. He didn’t say anything though when Sam didn’t do it right away. Apparently, it took a minute for him to get up the nerve. Gabriel could feel Sam’s hands shaking as he undid the archangel’s pants, and then he hesitated again before reaching in and wrapping his large hand around Gabriel’s length. “Oh…god…Sammy…yes,” Gabriel panted, resisting the urge to thrust into the hunter’s hand. 

Sam worked Gabriel out of the slit in the front of his boxers and then couldn’t help but just stare at it, his head laying on Gabriel’s chest pressing kisses and licks to the soft skin there as he did. He stroked slowly so as not to impede his view. This was the first time he had ever seen another cock hard before and it was turning him on even more than he had been before which was saying something. Part of him wanted to lean down and get a taste of it, but he just couldn’t bring himself to do it. Gabriel’s hand was tightening and releasing in his hair, but he wasn’t pushing him down there either, so he didn’t have to feel bad about it. 

He did manage to pull his eyes away from the view after a few minutes and leaned up to kiss Gabriel hungrily, and the archangel, now able to get a good angle to do so, brought his hand across to rub against the bulge in Sam’s jeans as Sam moaned into his mouth. Gabriel felt himself getting too close to do more than that and when Sam’s lips moved up Gabriel’s jaw again, he whispered, “Oh, God, Sammy…I’m so close,” as he thrusted up into Sam’s hand and the hunter picked up the pace and started interspersing sharp nips to Gabriel’s neck and collarbones, having long figured out that Gabriel enjoyed biting and it wasn’t long at all before Gabriel was spilling over his hand. 

Gabriel wanted to see what Sam would do with it before he cleaned it up, but when Sam moved to wipe his hand on his sheets Gabriel snapped his fingers and the mess disappeared even as his other hand was moving faster over Sam’s cock. He pushed the hunter onto his back and started unbuttoning his shirt with one hand as the other did the same to his pants, giving Sam plenty of time to stop him if he wanted to. Sam didn’t though so he reached in and pulled Sam out, stroking hard and fast as he kissed his way down the hunter’s exposed chest, stopping at his nipples making Sam moan louder. When he got to Sam’s stomach he looked up and whispered, “Let me suck you, Sammy?” 

Sam nodded profusely as he panted out a, “Yes…please.”

Gabriel grinned and moved his head back down with a soft lick to the tip, lapping up the precum there as Sam thrust his hips up looking for more. Gabriel hummed contentedly as he wrapped his lips around the hunter and swallowed him down and it was a good thing that he wasn’t human or Sam’s hand probably would have pulled all his hair out. He was glad that Sam was good with this. It was no secret that Gabriel had a serious oral fixation that he was usually stuck satisfying with lollipops, but now that he could have Sam instead, he had every intention of doing this as often as Sam would let him. His skills in this area were legendary and he showed Sam every bit he could manage before the hunter inevitably blew. Gabriel gleefully swallowed every drop before kissing his way back up Sam’s stomach and chest and kissing him deeply again. 

Sam pushed Gabriel up with him just a bit. Enough to finish taking his shirt off, before pulling Gabriel down next to him and the archangel gladly curled up to Sam’s side as they both tucked themselves away and did their pants back up. “You good, Sammy?” Gabriel asked turning enough to press a soft kiss to Sam’s chest. 

“Yeah. I’m good,” Sam said pulling Gabriel in tighter with a grin on his face. “Better than good, even.”

“Good,” Gabriel said with a chuckle. 

“Do you…maybe…wanna stay tonight?” Sam asked hopefully. He desperately wanted to wake up in his angel’s arms. 

Gabriel lifted his head and kissed Sam softly. “Absolutely.”

They lay there just basking in each other’s presence as hands danced over exposed skin, conversation lightly interspersed until Sam drifted off to sleep, and Gabriel settled comfortably in his arms, closing his eyes and deciding to sleep himself. He didn’t actually need sleep, but he did enjoy it more often than not. Something about being in a dream state was fascinating to him, and doing so while wrapped in Sam’s arms was intoxicating.


	17. Chapter 17

A couple days later, it was time for their fun day. Gabriel kept things tame in the morning, planning to do their fun crazy thing as a date thing that evening. He had been spending every night with Sam since the first one. They still hadn’t gone any farther than they had that day, but that was a daily thing, sometimes twice daily depending on the position they woke up in and how hot it got them. They decided to hang around the bunker and watch tv with Dean in the morning and then they went out for lunch followed by a nice walk around town before Gabriel led them to a karaoke bar and Sam groaned. “Come on Samsquatch. I’ll even do a duet with you before you have to take the mic yourself,” Gabriel said with a grin. 

“Let me get a few drinks in me first?” Sam asked hopefully. 

Gabriel laughed. “Sure thing, Sammykins.”

An hour later, the place was just starting to fill up and Gabriel went and signed them up for their first song. “What are we singing?” Sam asked. 

“You’ll see,” Gabriel told him as they watched a really drunk guy belt out the words to Renegade badly. They were up next and when the opening strains of Don’t Go Breaking My Heart started, Sam couldn’t help but chuckle through his nerves. “I’ve got first,” Gabriel told him, and Sam rolled his eyes. Of course Gabriel stuck him with the girl part. “Don’t go breaking my heart,” Gabriel sang with a lot more meaning than he had intended. 

“I couldn’t if I tried,” Sam answered, not quite as well as Gabriel had. 

“Honey, if I get restless.”

“Baby you’re not that kind,” Sam sang starting to get into it a little bit. 

Gabriel grinned, seeing Sam start to relax and started twirling him around the stage as they sang. “Don't go breaking my heart.”

“You take the weight off me,” Sam sang. Just the fact that he was here doing this was proof enough of that line. 

“Honey when you knock on my door.”

“I gave you my key.”

“Nobody knows it.”

“When I was down.”

“I was your clown.” Sam wondered how much the thought of him really had helped Gabriel when he was down over the years. 

“Nobody knows it.”

“Right from the start.”

“I gave you my heart.” Sam realized that Gabriel really had given him his heart basically from the moment they met. He was just glad he had the chance to return the favor now. 

“I gave you my heart,” they sang together. 

“So don't go breaking my heart,” Gabriel sang almost as a plea. 

“I won't go breaking your heart,” Sam promised. 

“Don't go breaking my heart,” they sang together. 

“And nobody told us.”

“'Cause nobody showed us.”

“And now it's up to us babe,” Gabriel sang, looking into Sam’s eyes to convey his meaning. 

“I think we can make it,” Sam answered honestly. 

“So don't misunderstand me,” Gabriel sang with a grin. 

“You put the light in my life,” Sam sang with his own grin reaching out to run a hand through Gabriel’s hair as he did. 

“You put the sparks to the flame,” Gabriel sang with a wink to Sam. 

“I've got your heart in my sights,” Sam nearly laughed through the line at Gabriel’s antics. 

No sooner than they finished the song, Gabriel told Sam, “Okay, your turn. Go pick a song.”

Sam gulped audibly. He was far more nervous about getting up there by himself than he had been with Gabriel. He knew how much of attention hog Gabriel was and doubted anyone really noticed him much with Gabriel hamming it up. By himself was much different. He knew that Gabriel had sent him a message with the song that he chose, and he wanted to do the same. He spent a long time going through the selection before he found the perfect song. He went ahead and read over the words to refresh his memory and make sure that it said everything he wanted to say before he signed up for it. 

There were two more people before he got called up again and he took a deep breath to steel himself before he walked up there and picked up the microphone. He caught Gabriel’s eyes right in the front row and decided to try and forget that anyone else was there. He was singing this for Gabriel and Gabriel alone. As the opening strains of the music came from the speakers he took another deep breath before he started to sing. 

“I'll be your dream, I'll be your wish, I'll be your fantasy.   
I'll be your hope, I'll be your love, be everything that you need.   
I love you more with every breath, truly madly deeply do  
I will be strong, I will be faithful 'cause I'm counting on a new beginning.  
A reason for living. A deeper meaning.”

Gabriel’s breath hitched when Sam started singing and his eyes didn’t leave Sam’s as the hunter poured his heart into every word. Even when his eyes started filling with tears he didn’t look away. 

“I want to stand with you on a mountain.  
I want to bathe with you in the sea.  
I want to lay like this forever.  
Until the sky falls down on me.”

Gabriel swore then and there that he would give Sam everything he had to give. He would make all of the hunter’s dreams come true, because this moment right here, was every dream Gabriel ever had coming true. 

“And when the stars are shining brightly in the velvet sky,  
I'll make a wish send it to heaven then make you want to cry  
The tears of joy for all the pleasure and the certainty.  
That we're surrounded by the comfort and protection of  
The highest power, in lonely hours, the tears devour you.”

Gabriel wiped a stray tear that fell down his cheek even as his eyes were still locked on Sam’s. Sam hadn’t even glanced away once, and Gabriel could tell the moment he forgot that anyone else was there but the two of them. 

“I want to stand with you on a mountain,  
I want to bathe with you in the sea.  
I want to lay like this forever,  
Until the sky falls down on me.”

“Oh can you see it baby?  
You don't have to close your eyes  
'Cause it's standing right before you.  
All that you need will surely come.”

Gabriel could attest to the truth in that. Everything he needed had come. He had Sam and he was never letting him go now. No matter what. He would move heaven and earth to make this work. He would die before he let Sam go. 

“I'll be your dream, I'll be your wish, I'll be your fantasy.  
I'll be your hope, I'll be your love, be everything that you need.  
I'll love you more with every breath, truly madly deeply do.”

“I want to stand with you on a mountain  
I want to bathe with you in the sea.  
I want to lay like this forever.  
Until the sky falls down on me.”

“I want to stand with you on a mountain  
I want to bathe with you in the sea.  
I want to live like this forever.  
Until the sky falls down on me.”

Sam completely messed up the runs at the end, but Gabriel didn’t care a single bit and the second Sam stepped off the stage, Gabriel grabbed him in a deep kiss, completely ignoring all the catcalls running through the place.  
“Okay. Your turn,” Sam challenged, and Gabriel grinned at him. Gabriel was always up for a challenge. He winked at Sam as he sauntered over to the book and started perusing. He rose his eyebrows when he noticed one of the songs and considered it for a moment. It would be pretty ambitious, but he thought he could pull it off. He hadn’t sung like that in a long time though. Challenge it would definitely be. That’s when another song caught his eye and he honestly couldn’t choose between them, so he signed up for both, deciding to do the second one first as a bit of a vocal warm up before tackling the tough one. That done, he headed back to the table with a smirk. He would totally pay Sam back for making him cry in public. 

They had to sit through a few more people before Gabriel got called up again and he started with Edwin McCain’s I Could Not Ask For More. He grinned and waved theatrically to the audience before focusing on Sam as the song started.   
“Lying here with you  
Listening to the rain  
Smiling just to see the smile upon your face  
These are the moments I thank God that I'm alive  
These are the moments I'll remember all my life  
I found all I've waited for  
And I could not ask for more.”

Sam found himself in the same position Gabriel had been. Not only was Gabriel actually a good singer, but he was putting so much feeling into the song that if Sam didn’t know any better he would think he was projecting his feelings. 

“Looking in your eyes  
Seeing all I need  
Everything you are is everything to me  
These are the moments  
I know heaven must exist  
These are the moments I know all I need is this  
I have all I've waited for  
And I could not ask for more.”

“I could not ask for more than this time together  
I could not ask for more than this time with you  
Every prayer has been answered  
Every dream I have's come true  
And right here in this moment is right where I'm meant to be  
Here with you here with me.”

Sam’s breath hitched as Gabriel poured his heart and soul into every word, and Sam was totally overwhelmed by the feeling of being loved so completely at all, much less by a being older than time itself. As Gabriel finished the song, Sam found himself wiping a few stray tears away too. Little did he know it wasn’t over yet. When the song was over, Gabriel stayed on the stage as another song started and Sam’s jaw hit the floor almost right away even as the love washed over him. Gabriel was actually singing Unchained Melody. And singing the hell out of it. Sam would never have guessed that Gabriel could sing like that! Hell, he was even better than the Everly Brothers! 

Like Gabriel had when Sam got off the stage, Sam grabbed Gabriel in a desperate kiss the second he stepped off the stage. “Take us home, Gabe,” Sam murmured against his lips a moment later and they disappeared on the spot.


	18. Chapter 18

Sam and Gabriel reappeared in Sam’s bedroom and Sam immediately began unbuttoning Gabriel’s shirt and the archangel returned the favor. “God, I love you so much Gabriel,” Sam whispered against Gabriel’s neck as his lips trailed down to Gabriel’s newly exposed shoulders. 

“And I love you, my Samshine. With everything I am,” Gabriel whispered back. Once they were shirtless, Sam pressed Gabriel back onto the bed. Tonight just completely opened the floodgates. He was done holding back here. He wanted it all. He NEEDED it all. Sam kissed and licked his way down Gabriel’s chest and stomach while his hands fumbled at Gabriel’s belt. 

It wasn’t until Sam was pulling his pants all the way off that Gabriel realized that they were about to tread new ground, and he was even more happy he had thought of karaoke. Sam slid back on top of him kissing him deeply before working his way down a little more slowly this time ending with a soft kiss to the tip of Gabriel’s leaking erection causing the archangel to whimper as he resisted the urge to thrust up for more. He knew that this was a first for Sam and didn’t want to rush him. 

Sam pressed soft kisses all the way up the shaft before wrapping his lips around the head and sucking pulling a stuttered moan from the archangel. He was only a little surprised at how much he liked it. He moved down taking as much as he could into his mouth, keeping up the suction as he felt something pressed into his hand. “If…if you…want to,” Gabriel panted. God did he want to. That didn’t stop his nerves from kicking up another notch though. He had no idea what he was doing. Well he had read up on the process so technically he did know. He had just never done it before. He bit the bullet though and slicked up his fingers, trying not to let it distract him too much from Gabriel’s dick in his mouth. He ended up spilling quite a bit of the lube, but ignored it as he pressed a finger into Gabriel’s tight heat and moaned. 

Between the vibrations that moan sent down his cock and the finger pressing so enticingly into him, Gabriel couldn’t stop himself from thrusting up into Sam’s mouth causing the hunter to choke and pull back. “S-sorry…sorry,” Gabriel apologized. “P-please…don’t stop,” he begged. Sam moved back down and put Gabriel back in his mouth as his finger started pressing in and out slowly as he experimented with the angle looking for the right one. He knew he found it when Gabriel gave a stuttered moan and his hand tightened in Sam’s hair, but somehow he managed to restrain himself from thrusting up again or pushing Sam’s head down. 

Sam knew that Gabriel would be able to get it back up again and he wanted so badly to taste his angel so he put all of his not so prodigious skill to work trying to get him off. He paid liberal attention to the pleasure button as he licked and sucked and used his other hand to stroke what he couldn’t fit in his mouth. It was only a few minutes later when Gabriel breathed out, “Oh…fuck…I-I’m coming.” He wasn’t sure if Sam wanted a warning or if he intended to swallow, but it seemed he really was going to get lucky because Sam’s only response was to suck harder and faster and the hunter moaned again as he felt Gabriel tense around his finger as he blew, calling out Sam’s name. 

Once he had swallowed everything Gabriel had spilled, he moved back up to kiss the archangel again as he slid his second finger into Gabriel’s hole. He was starting to ache from holding back by now, but he didn’t want to hurt Gabriel…if he even could hurt Gabriel. “God, Gabe…I want you so bad,” Sam panted out as he nipped at the archangel’s neck. 

“I…fuck…I’m yours, Sammy…always,” Gabriel whispered as he could feel Sam’s fingers scissoring him open. Part of him wanted to tell Sam to just hurry up and get in him, but he was a little too nervous about this part too. He had never done it this way before and wasn’t entirely sure what it would feel like, so he let Sam take his time as he worked his way down Gabriel’s chest and stomach again. By the time he got there, Gabriel was rock hard again. Bless his archangel stamina, and Sam wasted no time diving back in even as his fingers kept working. 

It was a few minutes before Gabriel let out a little hiss of pain as Sam slid a third finger into his tight hole, and Sam pulled it back out worried that he was hurting him, Gabriel quickly said, “No, no, no. Don’t…don’t stop…keep going,” so Sam slid it back in, getting another little hiss, this time accompanied by a, “Yes, Sam.” The novelty of having Sam like this wasn’t even close to wearing off yet, and between that and the way Sam’s fingers were keeping the sweet spot busy, he was a lot closer than he wanted to be again so soon, so he started pulling Sam’s hair and nudging him up. “Kiss me, Sam,” he breathed out, and Sam moved back up and kissed Gabriel hard. “I want you inside me when I cum again,” he muttered against the hunter’s lips and Sam moaned at the thought of Gabriel having been that close again. He couldn’t say he disagreed with the archangel’s wishes though so he didn’t return to his previous activity. 

Once Sam realized that Gabriel was as loose as he was going to get, he pulled back and stripped his own pants off, almost faster than humanly possible, and slicked his cock up, lining up with Gabriel’s entrance and started pressing in slowly. Gabriel was hissing in pain, but there was so much pleasure mixed in too that he kept up on constant litany of, “Don’t stop…oh god…so good…don’t stop…please,” as Sam thrusted shallowly working his way deeper and deeper as he struggled with himself not to blow so soon. He couldn’t believe how tight and hot Gabriel was. It was like heaven. No. He’d been to heaven. This was much much better than heaven. 

“Oh god, Gabriel,” he panted as buried himself balls deep inside the archangel. “I love you, Gabe,” he whispered as he leaned over and attached his lips to Gabriel’s again, taking a moment to both allow Gabriel to adjust and keep himself from coming. 

Gabriel was glad Sam was giving him a minute. He couldn’t believe how full he felt right now. It was amazing, but also a little overwhelming. When he felt ready for more he hooked his feet around Sam’s legs and lifted his hips, pulling Sam in deeper and pulling moans from both of them as Sam got the hint and started moving, slowly at first, but he knew he wasn’t going to last long. He reached down and started stroking Gabriel in time with his thrusts as they sped up and it didn’t take long at all before he was frantically pounding into Gabriel and he knew he was about to blow. Gabriel beat him to it by about half a second though, and the clenching around him pulled him over the edge, crying out Gabriel’s name as he felt his orgasm wash over him. 

Sam stilled over Gabriel, pressing his forehead to the archangel’s, both of them breathing heavily as they tried to catch their breath. Sam pushed Gabriel’s sweat-slick hair back from where it was stuck to his forehead as he kissed him again, soft and slow and sweet. “I love you, Sam. That was…perfect,” Gabriel whispered, feeling more than a little overcome at the moment. 

“And I love you, Gabe. More than I ever thought possible,” Sam whispered back before slowly sliding his softening cock out of Gabriel’s ass and collapsing on the bed next to him. 

Gabriel wanted Sam to know that was a first for him so he said, “I never imagined that could be so good.”

Sam’s head snapped up to look at him. “Was that the first time you…” Sam let the question hang there. 

“First time I bottomed, yeah. This was our first time together, and your first time with a guy, so I wanted something to be a first for me too.” Sam kissed him passionately at that statement, not even able to put a name to the feeling that welled up in him. 

“I swear I feel like the luckiest guy on the planet right now, and that’s really a first for me,” Sam said with a wide grin. 

Gabriel chuckled a bit as he said, “You get this awesomeness,” gesturing up and down his body. “Of course, you’re lucky.”

Sam laughed at that and pressed another short kiss to Gabriel’s lips. “I hope you know I’m never letting you go now,” Sam told him. 

“You better not,” Gabriel said contentedly settling himself comfortably in Sam’s arms.


	19. Chapter 19

Time went on in the bunker…well not really…Time stood still for the most part, but for Sam and Gabriel, time went on. Sam, rather than finding it annoying like he had initially expected, found himself thankful for Dean’s morning question. It helped him keep track of how long he was in here. “Morning Sammy. You looping yet? How many days you on so far?”

“57.” 

“Morning Sammy. You looping yet? How many days you on so far?”

“184.”

“Morning Sammy. You looping yet? How many days you on so far?”

“392.”

“Morning Sammy. You looping yet? How many days you on so far?”

“623.”

“Morning Sammy. You looping yet? How many days you on so far?”

“998.”

“Jesus Sam. How long you planning on staying in this thing? That’s what…three years?”

“Almost,” Sam said resignedly. “I’m staying until I learn everything I can to give us a fighting chance against Amara. It had been a very long three years and he was sure that if he hadn’t had Gabriel he would have lost his mind by now. He was so completely head over heels for the archangel that he couldn’t even imagine living a day without him. Gabriel had officially moved into the bunker with them around the hundredth loop, though he had practically been living there since the first time Sam took him to bed. He had managed to loosen Sam up a lot more than the hunter had expected going in. Hell, they had even robbed a bank last week. In broad daylight, without powers. Half the stuff Gabriel was getting him to do, he would never do without being looped, but he could definitely see himself doing some of it outside the loop. Like the karaoke. Even the skydiving was pretty fun. It helped that he went tandem with an archangel that could actually fly if something went wrong, of course, but that wasn’t the point. 

It was a few more months before Gabriel pronounced him finished with the archangel school of magic. “You’ve learned as much as humans are capable of,” Gabriel told him. 

“Thank you, Gabe. Now want to help me try and put something together to help fight Amara?” Sam asked hopefully. 

“Well you can’t kill her. That’s out of the question. She has to exist to keep the balance or everything else ceases to exist. It’s all gonna be about trapping her away. Now, I can create a dimension to trap her in, but there are gonna be a few problems with that. First, I can’t create anything strong enough to hold her. Dear old Dad had to create her dimension last time. Second, how to get her in there. She is far too strong for us to fight and far too canny to trick.”

“So, our best bet would be to find some way to strengthen the dimension you can create, and find some way to weaken her enough that we can fight her?” That was what he got from that whole speech anyway. 

“Bingo,” Gabriel told him. “But we can start on that tomorrow. I want to take you out tonight. A celebration of sorts if you will.” 

“Sounds good to me,” Sam said with a grin, taking Gabriel’s hand, knowing that meant he wanted to go now, and he would change Sam’s clothes into something appropriate on the way. 

Sam was surprised to find himself standing near the canals in Venice as Gabriel led them over to the gondola’s. He had paid extra for a private ride and for them to be serenaded as he did. He had big plans for tonight. He just hoped it worked out the way he wanted it to. Once they were headed down the river, Gabriel worked a little magic to make sure that the boat operator couldn’t over hear their conversation before he turned to Sam. “So, you know, there’s this thing angels can do. It’s called bonding. It would tie my grace and your soul together for all eternity. You would be immortal with me, but if anything ever killed one of us, we would share your heaven.”

Sam blinked at him for a moment, taking in the sweaty palms and the way Gabriel was biting his lip. He hadn’t seen Gabriel this nervous in years. “Are you asking me to bond with you?” Sam asked, eyes lighting up with happiness. 

“I…um…hang on. Let me do this the human way,” Gabriel said getting off the seat and going to one knee taking Sam’s hands in his. “Sam Winchester, will you bond with me?” 

Sam broke out in a grin. “Absolutely,” he said pulling Gabriel into a kiss. 

That part he allowed the boatman to hear and he grinned widely at them. “Meraviglioso! Complimenti!” 

“Grazie,” Gabriel replied settling back to Sam’s side, curling up next to him in what was a long familiar pose. 

“So, when do you want to do this?” Sam asked excitedly. 

“Well it will need to wait until we’re not looping anymore. I don’t have the slightest clue how bonding within a loop would affect things. It’s an eternal bond, but then we would loop back to a time it doesn’t exist so for all I know it could cause a paradox that would explode the universe,” Gabriel joked…mostly. 

“Yeah, okay. No universe exploding paradoxes,” Sam laughed. “So whenever tomorrow actually comes?” Sam asked hopefully. 

“That sounds perfect,” Gabriel said happily snuggling in tighter against Sam’s side, beyond thrilled that the hunter was so eager to have him forever. After their gondola ride, Gabriel led them to a little hole in the wall place for dinner and gelato, before they returned home and spent the rest of the night wrapped up in each other. 

The next morning, they went straight to work on the Amara problem. “Do you think it would be possible to get help with strengthening the dimension?” Sam asked. “Maybe you and Cas working together?” 

Gabriel snorted in amusement. “Every single angel, demon, and pagan god could throw every bit of power they have at it and it wouldn’t even be close to strong enough.”

Sam paled at that. “Then how can we possibly…”

“I don’t have the slightest. You said to get you the knowledge and you’d figure something out, so I got you the knowledge,” Gabriel said with a shrug. “My vote is to find a nice little hole in the wall planet on the other side of the universe and hope she takes a while to get to us.”

Despite the seriousness of the situation, Sam couldn’t help but laugh at that. “Yeah, I’m gonna have to vote against you on that one.” He turned his attention to thinking of what they could possibly do to weaken someone so strong. 

It was another week before he had a whole slew of spells written that would weaken her some, but not nearly enough. Sam and Gabriel had their heads bent over some complicated theory seeing if they could tweak the spells to be stronger when they suddenly were no longer alone in the library. “You do realize that you two do have to come out of this amusing little loop someday right?”

“Chuck!?” Sam asked shocked. 

Gabriel scrambled to his feet and let loose and uppercut from hell. Even Sam could see that he had put all of his strength into it, and he was even more shocked that aside from snapping his head back and a spot of blood on his lip, it did nothing to the prophet who Sam was suddenly not so sure was actually a prophet. He was positive when Gabriel reared back to punch him again and Chuck just waved a hand causing Gabriel to fly against the wall and stick there like a fly on flypaper. “Enough, Gabriel. I gave you a free shot because just maybe, I MIGHT have deserved it. But don’t forget your place.”

“How dare you?!” Gabriel snarled. “My thoughts and my feelings were meant to be private not plastered all over the pages of a book for the whole world to read!” He’d been holding that particular grudge for a long time. 

“Yes, I rather gathered your displeasure when you blew up an entire galaxy. I had to start that all over again by the way,” Chuck said, annoyed. 

“Oh boo-hoo,” Gabriel snapped. 

“You destroyed a whole galaxy?” Sam asked dumb-founded, pulled out of his stupor long enough to ask that. 

“I was pissed,” Gabriel told him with a shrug. 

“Apparently still are,” Chuck said wryly, wiping the blood off his lip. 

“Of course, I am. How the hell would you feel in my position!?” 

“Now, Gabriel. There is no need for that kind of language.”

“Language?! I’ll show you language you **** ***** son of a ***** with a ****** ***** and ****** you can go **** yourself!” 

Sam’s eyes went wide at the expletives coming out of Gabriel’s mouth and the part of him that wasn’t worried sick was fighting not to laugh. “So…you’re god, I assume?” Sam asked trying to distract him from smiting Gabriel into nothing more than a smudge on the floor. Chuck looked at him and nodded. “So, you were there the whole time…”

“I was. And I must say, I was quite proud of the way you handled things, obvious exceptions of course.”

“Proud? You were proud?! You left us in that shitstorm! You could have helped!” 

“Ah, but I did help, Sam. I gave you the information you needed, some of it through Gabriel here, and do you really think it is so easy to take over the mind of an archangel in his true vessel? You chose the course of action. I helped it happen. You’re welcome,” he said smugly. 

“Sam, don’t!” Gabriel called seeing that Sam was about to either yell at him or hit him. He could get away with those things as his son, but he wasn’t sure how well Sam would fare. 

Gabriel’s warning was enough to bring Sam to his senses, so the hunter just crossed his arms. “What are you doing here?” he asked. 

“You have made enough progress with weakening my sister that I would be willing to help,” he told them. If they used those spells she would be weak enough to make a difference. 

“You would?” Sam asked hopefully. “What’s the catch?” 

“Someone will have to take the mark again,” he told them. 

“I’ll do it,” Sam spoke up. 

“Like hell you will!” Gabriel snapped as his father finally let him free of the wall. 

“It won’t be so bad, Gabe. Cain was able to fight the curse for centuries because he had the memory of love. I have you, and I will always have you. I’ll be able to fight it. I’ll probably have to stop hunting so it doesn’t get so much fuel, but I can do that.”

“Sam, no. Let me…”

“No, Gabriel. Not gonna happen,” Sam told him. “If things go wrong then a human could do a lot less damage than an archangel could.”

“You’re trying to get me to let you do this, while telling me something could go wrong? Not exactly a brilliant strategy there, Sam.”

“If love is the key to fighting this thing, who would be better than one of us? Nothing will go wrong, but I would rather err on the side of caution just in case. Besides, Cain was human when he took the mark. It may be harder for an archangel to fight it.”

“Sam,” Gabriel whined pulling their foreheads together. “Please don’t do this.”

“Trust me, Gabriel…please,” Sam whispered. 

“I do…I just…I don’t like this. I…I watched the mark turn Lucifer. I can’t…can’t do that again. Not with you…I just can’t.”

Sam put a finger under Gabriel’s chin and pulled his head up so he was looking him in the eye. “I will be fine, Gabriel. I promise. You will be my anchor. Always. Let me do this. Please.”

Gabriel closed his eyes and took a deep shaky breath. “Okay. Just…please…”

“I know. I swear to you Gabriel. I won’t let myself fall to it,” Sam vowed. 

“Okay. Fine. I still don’t like this, though.”

“Good. Now that we’re all decided, let’s make a plan,” Chuck said clapping his hands together and another person appeared in the room. 

“Adam?” Sam asked in shock. 

“Michael,” Gabriel said with a wary nod towards him. 

“Gabriel, Father, Sam,” Michael said, greeting them nervously. “Why am I here?” he asked his father. 

“Well if you’re ready to behave you can come out of time out and help your brother and I deal with your aunt,” Chuck told him. 

“And…I don’t have to go back?” Michael asked hopefully. 

“That depends. Are you going to behave or start trying to destroy my world again?” Chuck asked. 

“I’ll behave,” Michael promised. 

“Good. Then we have work to do,” Chuck said motioning everyone to sit down and they started modifying Sam’s spells to all work in conjunction. “Sam will say the spells, and then Michael, Gabriel, and I will force her into the dimension and Sam will take the key,” Chuck declared once they were finished. 

“So how will we find her?” Sam asked. 

“I will simply need to go out in the open and she will find us,” Chuck told him. 

“Then it will need to be somewhere deserted where there won’t be any risk of civilian casualties,” Sam told him. 

“I have the perfect place in mind. Make sure you dress warmly,” Chuck told him. “We will go tomorrow afternoon once you are out of the loop,” he said as he and Michael disappeared. 

“Then we are bonding tomorrow morning,” Gabriel told Sam. If the worst happened he needed to know that they would be together, come what may. 

“Definitely,” Sam agreed, having the same thought. 

The next morning, finally Wednesday, Sam and Gabriel completed their bond before they even left their room for breakfast. As they sat down at the table, Dean stumbled in. “Finally out of the loop are we?” 

“Like you actually remember it,” Sam rolled his eyes. If anyone should be saying ‘finally’ it was him. 

“I remember you telling me that you had looped for 1,124 days,” Dean said with a shrug. 

“Yes, well we are out of it now, Gabriel and I are bonded, and we’re going to take out Amara this afternoon,” Sam told him. 

“Wait what?” Dean asked snapping his head up to look at Sam. “Hang on. You and Gabriel are bonded? Like married?” 

“Yep,” Sam said. 

“And we’re taking out Amara this afternoon? How? What do I need to do?” 

“You need to stay right here. Gabriel and I have this covered along with God and Michael,” Sam told him. 

Dean groaned. “I think I’m getting a headache. God is back? And isn’t Michael in the cage still?” 

Sam updated him on the last day of the time loop, something that they admittedly should have done last night, but they were rather preoccupied with the whole Sam getting the mark mess. Of course, Dean blew his top at that one too. Sam gave him the same explanation he gave Gabriel and then pointed out the deal they made about letting each other make their own decisions in these situations. It was still a long, drawn out argument, but Sam won. Dean, however, won the argument about him going along. He could read a spell as well as Sam could and once Gabriel confirmed that two of them reading would increase the power, it was a no-brainer.

They had just finished eating lunch when all three of them were standing in the snow with Chuck and Michael and Gabriel quickly snapped his fingers and changed Sam and Dean into full arctic gear. “What the hell? Where are we? Antarctica?” Dean asked shivering even with the extra clothes. 

“Yes, actually. Directly over the south pole,” Chuck said. 

“What? The north pole too good for you?” Dean snarked. 

“Given that we are going to be fighting, doing so on a sheet of ice would not be a very smart plan, now would it,” Chuck said condescendingly. 

“Let’s just get on with this,” Sam snapped as he pulled the spell out of his pocket. 

“Very well. You two stand over there out of the way,” Chuck told him pointing South and Sam and Dean started walking that way until Chuck told them to stop. “Now I will call her while you two say the spell.”

Only the fact that he was god, had them able to hear him since it was all in their heads. Between how far away they were that they could barely even see the three specks on the horizon, and the freezing wind whipping around them, they would never have heard him otherwise. Everything seemed to go like clockwork as far as they could tell from this far away, and Sam knew that it worked when he felt a burning in his arm and he leaned over clutching at it. He was wearing far too many layers to even consider peeling them back to take a look, but he knew what he would find anyway. 

Before he even managed to process that fact, he, Dean, and Gabriel were back in the bunker, dressed in their normal clothes, and Gabriel grabbed Sam’s arm and started frantically raising his sleeve. “How are you feeling Sam? You okay?” he asked agitatedly. 

Sam swatted Gabriel away and rolled up his own sleeve showing the bright red mark there. “I’m fine, Gabriel. Really,” he said pulling his husband into a kiss. “I got this, Gabe. As long as I have you, I’ll be fine.”

“God, I hope so,” Gabriel said heartbreakingly hopeful. “Since you’re out of hunting now anyway, what do you say we retire to my nice little island for a while? You’re welcome to come too,” he added to Dean. 

“Sounds good to me,” Sam said looking hopefully at Dean. 

“I guess I can come for a while,” Dean said with a shrug. Not like he had anything left here anyway. 

They learned later on that Michael had returned to heaven and was running things again, and he had welcomed Cas back. Since it was obviously their father’s will he was forgiven for trying to stop the apocalypse and everything else he had done was swept under the rug of being led astray by bad influences. God was MIA again, not that anyone else expected differently, of course, but Sam and Gabriel had a nice life, with Dean as a regular visitor until he died of old age. Sam never did succumb to the pull of the mark and Gabriel never left his side.


End file.
